Mercantile Solicitors want to work with their clients to avoid costly commercial disputes by putting in place sensible commercial agreements to deal with critical aspects of their business. Commercial disputes are expensive to litigate, there is typically no insurer picking up the legal costs, and time consuming for the business. A major commercial dispute not only puts financial pressure on a company, but it can put huge pressure on management which is typically overstretched to begin with.
Mercantile Solicitors deal with internal business disputes be they relate to employees or shareholders. The resolution of such a dispute can be multiple times easier if there is a proper written legal agreement in place, in our examples, an Employment Contract or a Shareholders Agreement.
Disputes with third parties are possibly unavoidable for a business of any significant size. Business is now typically cross-border, tends to involve multiple parties with potential liability and never as clear cut as one would like. Much like the comments elsewhere about internal business disputes, it is frequently a matter of regret for the parties that commercial agreements are absent which might have informed an earlier less expensive remedy. Whether it be a distribution agreement, goods damaged in transit, former staff competing against the business, a cross border dispute or debt; all of these matters could be avoided, or if not avoided, less expensive to resolve if there were commercial agreements in place or standard trading terms and conditions that would bring clarity or provide for an alternative dispute resolution. It is trite to observe that many business disputes arise from poor communication and lack of mutual understanding of the basis of the commercial relationship.
Regardless of the foregoing, there is no point crying over spilt milk of lack of commercial documentation or protections. There are many occasions that the prudent business decision is to litigate or seek injunctive relief before the courts. Mercantile Solicitors are ready to move at short notice to get results for their clients in such action. Adopting a robust position and following through are critically important. We are always at pains to keep our business clients fully infomred as regards the risks of litigation to include the legal cost and indeed the lost opportunity costs for the business itself which must be in the equation of when to proceed and when to settle.
