Dispute Resolution

Competent. Experienced. Capable. Collaborative.

Do you feel like the picture above could be you with someone else involved in your business? If so, you’re not alone — it’s inevitable in business. Eventually a dispute will arise with someone, and if you’re not careful, that dispute can cripple your business. Whether the business partners are fighting, or a dispute arises with a client or customer, the landlord, an employee, a contractor, a vendor or some other party, the approach taken to resolve that dispute can really impact the business financially, legally and more. We can help you try to resolve your business disputes before they explode into costly and time consuming litigation.

Business Law Southwest has decades of experience handling difficult dispute resolution cases for all sorts of matters.

Business Law Southwest Can Help With:

What is Effective Dispute Resolution

The best way to resolve disputes is to avoid them altogether, and ensuring you force all third-party relationships into contracts is a great way to avoid disputes or at least manage them when they happen.

If there is a contract, then effective dispute resolution involves evaluating the contract in light of the facts and circumstances surrounding the dispute. Oftentimes, a contract will have very specific dispute resolution language, let alone terms and conditions that may govern the subject matter giving rise to the dispute. In such instances, dispute resolution becomes a matter of enforcing a contract.

If there is no contract, or the contract in place doesn’t cover the specific facts or circumstances giving rise to the dispute, then we need to determine whether legal statute, caselaw or other circumstances could control the nature, circumstances and/or subject matter of the dispute.

The Business Law Southwest Dispute Resolution Process

The dispute resolution lawyers at Business Law Southwest think in terms of economics. Disputes aren’t about paying attorneys, they are about resolving disputes in the most cost-effective way possible, so that a business owner and the business can move beyond the dispute and back to the main focus of the business: Serving clients and customers, generating revenue and meeting payroll. Our approach is:

• Assess the Problem. This involves talking to our client, reviewing any contracts, researching relevant controlling law; all in light of the specific facts and circumstances of the dispute.
• Strategize and Devise a Plan. Based on our evaluation of all the factors around the dispute, letting our clients know the options, along with their risks and costs. From this, we devise a cost-effective plan to approach the dispute, based on client feedback and approval.
• Issue a Demand Letter or Settlement Offer. Depending on what plan was devised, we reach out to the opposing party (or their attorney, if represented) to either make a demand or a settlement. We generally avoid litigation at first, due to its costs, uncertain outcome and long lead-time. Instead, we will try to reach some accord with the opposing party in an attempt to minimize expenses and the risk of litigation. In many instances, it’s a matter of either paying us attorneys, or leaving a bit of money on the table in an attempt to reach a compromise with the opposing party. As we said earlier, it’s a matter of economics.
• Negotiate a Settlement. Assuming the opposing party is receptive to settling, we will put together a strong settlement agreement that prevents the opposing party from coming back and creating more problems later. Hopefully, this will represent the end of the matter.
• Litigation as a Last Resort While we take pride in a successfully resolving most of the dispute resolution matters we are involved in without resorting to litigation, some matters invariably do require litigation. Whether that means arbitration or mediation, or actual litigation in a court of law, our litigation team is second to none.