If you own a small or medium business and you ever face a dispute, it is likely that you will lose a lot of money, if you don’t consider the services of a solicitor. That is usually money you would like to keep, so there is not really anything to wonder about. Getting such an expert on board is necessary to resolve any issues – big or small.

Some people believe that instructing a solicitor to deal with a commercial dispute is somewhat costly. However, you should look at this the other way around – not instructing a solicitor to handle the case is something that will make you lose money. They will deal with the case before it has grown into a complicated problem, that can even ruin your business.

 

Sometimes it is the prevention of dispute that matters most 

When it comes to businesses, chances are they will be involved in a dispute at some point. Whether it is a customer, a supplier, or some competitor, there will be some cost to the business, which can impact the company negatively.

Most commercial disputes fall in the contractual category. They result from delayed payments or no payments at all between the customers and the suppliers. This makes small businesses particularly vulnerable in these situations since they do not possess the resources to handle severe disputes. Therefore, it is of utmost importance for them to prevent disputes. Possible ways to do this include:

- Minimising the mistakes of credit control 

- Excellent management of commercial arrangements 

Small businesses should speak to their lawyers and solicitors on how they can manage the contractual process better. They should also invest in updating relations with their suppliers and clients. These are the changes that one business can implement to minimise the chance of disputes arising in the first place.

Resolving business disputes the right way

According to experts, small and medium businesses that do not tackle their disputes the right way, do one of three things:

They simply ignore the issue, which is by far the worst strategy imaginable. 

They recognise the need to do something but decide to do so without the help of experts. This often leads to further problems, which may increase the loss.

They turn to advisors, who simply lack the expertise to handle such matters. For example, they often rely on their accountant or financial adviser, while they should be speaking to a legal expert instead. 

It is of utmost importance to recognise these potential pitfalls and work to avoid them. Not only do they lead to no efficient resolution, but also further the problems and cause potentially big losses. That said, a professional solicitor can be of real help, due to the fact they can identify the issues and advise the business on the different options. They will also do another important job: to explore whether some sort of settlement with the opposite side is possible.

Consider litigation

When the dispute enters the stage of legal proceedings, instructing a solicitor is perhaps the best option. Don’t end up in an ‘if only I had acted sooner’ situation since that can cost you money and can make the problem even bigger. One of the most important aspects of litigation is how you are going to finance it. Consider conditional/contingency fees, or ask if there is the option of funding together and placing insurance if the case fails.

Obviously, you don’t want to find yourself in a situation where the inappropriate handling of a dispute can harm your business. That is why you should always be preventive, act quickly if the case is unavoidable and consider the expert help from solicitors, who can find the best form of resolution.

 

 

If you are interested in reading more tips on the matter, visit Carlsons Solicitors.

 

 

© Carlsons Solicitors

I'm giving this an anticipatory five stars because the second edition is coming at you (in 2011?) to ROCK YOUR WORLD!!! People are going to be resolving disputes outside of judicial venues like there's no tomorrow! This book alone may single-handedly solve the over-crowding of the court systems.

Okay, maybe not, but I think the second edition will be better. We put some elbow grease into that baby. I think the book suffers from having two authors, to be quite honest. Michael Moffitt, one of the co-authors, is a really exceptional professor, and I think he's a good writer, too. I have a problem writing things with other people, though, because their voice gets into my head in a confusing way. I feel like something similar happened here, where both authors became a little boring and convoluted because their voices interfered with each other. Enough of this bellyaching and self-promotion, though. Let me tell you what I know about dispute resolution.

There are three basic types of extra-judicial dispute resolution: negotiation, mediation, and arbitration. People should use them! (but maybe not arbitration because that's pretty crazy)

Negotiation

Negotiation happens in any context. So, if you're at a yard sale and you simply must have that light saber, but you only have $2 in your pocket and it's labeled $10, you negotiate. It pretty much looks like this. The book [b:Getting to Yes|6608641|Getting to Yes|Roger Fisher|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51VKeKbo53L._SL75_.jpg|6802589] started all this lingo about BATNAs (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement) and ZOPAs (Zone of Possible Agreement). For more on those thingamajiggers: BATNA and, actually, this book describes ZOPAs better than anything I can find on the internets, so you'll have to purchase your own copy in 2011, or whenever 2.0 comes out.

Mediation

Mediation becomes necessary when you've decided to shun someone. Mediation is my favorite way to resolve a fight. So, you are shunning someone, or that person is shunning you, and you have to bring in an outside person to be your translator. The neutral party goes back and forth saying things like, "What I'm hearing you say is . . ." and "Would you be willing to compromise FOR THE CHILDREN?!" or some such. It's excellent. Plus, mediation is sort-of confidential, so if you confess to everything being your fault in mediation, but then don't reach an agreement and still want to litigate, they can't hold your confession against you. Check your local statutes on that one, though, because a lot of the states have different exceptions or rules for confidentiality. Also, there's some question as to whether mediation in one court is confidential if you sue in a different court. That's weird, and I kind of want to look into it more.

Arbitration

I think the best way to explain arbitration is that it's kind of like a slap bet. You've got your agreement between the parties (the slap bet), but then if a dispute arises, you've got a neutral party to administer justice (the slap-bet commissioner). The slap-bet commissioner's ruling is either binding or non-binding according to the agreement of the parties. Slap-bet commissioners and arbitrators make a judgment call about an argument, where mediators try to help the parties resolve the argument between each other.

The questionable thing about arbitration is that you can't appeal an arbitrator's decision and there aren't juries in arbitration. A lot of the sale contracts for things we buy nowadays come with an arbitration clause. So, like, if my computer exploded and did damage to my house, I would probably have to go to arbitration for my claim against Apple. But, I don't have the money to hire a team of attorneys, so Apple is very likely to kill me in arbitration, and I'll have to abide by that decision. This topic was a big deal last year when Jamie Leigh Jones was raped and locked in the shipping container in Iraq by co-workers while employed by a Haliburton subsidiary. Her employment agreement had an arbitration clause. Eventually, she was allowed to go to court over the incident, but it took a lot of fighting as far as I know. The Franken Amendment changed the law so that employment agreements can't prohibit employees from going to court over stuff like that.

Anyway, that's basically what I know. It's a good topic. I could bore you with my knowledge of third-party rights and obligations under arbitration agreements, but for now it's only my potential employers who are cursed with that lecture.