Declaratory relief is a judge's determination (called a "declaratory judgment") of the parties' rights under a contract or a statute, often requested (and highly desired) in a lawsuit over a contract. ... resolution of legal rights will resolve some or all of the other issues in the matter.
Declaratory relief refers to a judgment of a court which determines the rights of parties without ordering anything be done or awarding damages. By seeking a declaratory judgment, the party making the request is seeking for an official declaration of the status of a matter in controversy.
... empower the court, in the event of an "actual controversy" to "declare" the parties' rights and obligations before the dispute had otherwise ripened into a full-blown action for, perhaps among other things, breach of contract. The rights and obligations of "any interested person" may, according to the statute be declared "under a deed, will or other written instrument, or under a contract", or "in respect to, in, over or upon property" and certain other specific, property-related matters.
Declaratory Relief is "cumulative"; it is available, in the same lawsuit, with other forms of relief.
... Declaratory Relief operates only prospectively; that is, it declares the parties' rights and obligations in the future. The remedy is not available at all where no future relations were contemplated by the parties but, instead, all that confronted them was a completed act of alleged wrongdoing.
