Business Disputes

According to data submitted by the US to the APEC forum, 2017 will see 942 million e-commerce business disputes. (1) According to an article by David Dodwell in the South China Morning Post, these disputes involved, on average, entities in six different nations with six different legal systems, and therefore made it necessary for the parties involved to hire six different lawyers to represent their interests.

Alternative Dispute Resolution, or ADR, is a set of practices designed to resolve disputes between individuals as well as businesses without the need for litigation. Since it avoids the courtroom, ADR tends to be faster and cheaper than litigation, and also offers the benefit of confidentiality.

The question is, when a business dispute arises, what is the best way to proceed? When handled poorly, business disputes can destroy reputations as well as companies. Some business disputes are always going to end up in a courtroom. However, in some cases, mediation is a more effective strategy.

In today’s fast paced, complex global business environment, business disputes are an unfortunate, but often unavoidable, fact of life. All managers dread business disputes, especially those with the potential to end in litigation.

When it comes to project delays that incur additional cost, there are two categories: excusable and inexcusable delays. Generally speaking, only inexcusable delays will allow an owner to recover damages from a contractor, or a contractor from a subcontractor. Let’s look at the difference between excusable and inexcusable delays in contract disputes.

Contracts are foundational to the way we do business in the modern world. Consequently, contract violations can be very serious and costly. One area where penalties for contract disputes are common and can be very expensive is in the construction industry.

No business owner or partner ever wants to think any bad feelings could ever arise between them, their partners, vendors, or customers. Unfortunately it is all too common.

The legal definition of breach of contract is: failing to perform any term of a contract, written or oral, without a legitimate legal excuse.