If your business is involved in a commercial dispute, you must understand how to deal with the pressure and apply it to the other party when settling the issue in court. Of course, a satisfactory business dispute ending can spare your company from spending a lot of money, effort, and anxiety.
So, are there any ways to improve your chances of success when dealing with such issues, and what is the key to getting a favorable outcome? In this brief article, we’ll take a look at the five ways to improve your chances in business dispute litigation.
Know Which Terms Of The Contract Apply
It doesn’t matter if it’s oral, written, or both; knowing which contract terms you’re disputing over allows you to apply more pressure to the other party. If you’re claiming that your standard contract terms apply, for instance, and can prove that the other party agreed to them before the contract was made, that puts you in a much better position to succeed in a court of law.
If a particular agreement was being negotiated, but you started the work before a final agreement was signed off, then you’re in a weaker position than the other party to succeed in a court of law. Or, if a contract is partly oral and partly in writing, what you said and did while honoring the contract can count against you if there’s a later dispute about what was agreed orally. If the terms are unclear or ambiguous, the court will decide what a reasonable person would have thought you agreed, and that might not be what you believe you actually agreed to.
Hire The Best Litigation Lawyers
As you can see, litigations as the processes of taking a dispute to a court of law are relatively complex processes where even the smallest detail can cost you a fortune or ruin what you’ve been successfully building for years. For that reason, regardless of whether you feel like you have the winning arguments in the dispute or not, always hire an experienced business litigation lawyer from your area to represent your side of the story and protect your rights during litigation.
For instance, if you’re facing a complex business litigation issue in Nevada, book a free consultation with some of the best Las Vegas business litigation lawyers, discuss your legal needs, and improve your chances of success in front of the court.
Learn To Recognize Tactics
For instance, if you’re taking someone to court, they can make a “part 36 offer”, a formal offer of money to settle the dispute. How “part 36 offers” are made is strictly regulated by court rules. Generally, the losing side pays the winner side’s legal costs, but if the loser has made a “part 36 offer,” and the winner is awarded less than the offer, the losing party doesn’t have to pay the winner’s legal costs incurred after the offer was made. This is a thing that can make a significant difference to the amount the winning side walks away with.
Or, if “part 36” doesn’t apply because the claim is not for money, an informal offer could still be made, and the court would still take it into account when evaluating costs if the winning party fails to beat it.
So, if you ever find yourself in a situation where you’re wondering whether you should make or accept a “part 36 offer”, always carry out a throughout assessment of the strength of your case and potential damages, and consider if you may need further information from the other party first when calculating how much to offer, or if you should reject the offer.
Keep All Adequate Records
Always maintain a proper written record of all negotiations leading up to the contract in dispute—including email printouts—because the court will often look at pre-contract negotiations to better interpret what the parties really intended in the eventual agreement. Parties without adequate records will experience a more challenging time arguing the accuracy of their version of events.
Ensure To Get The Wording Of Your Eventual Settlement Right
U.S. courts are full of cases where the wording of settlements has left companies out of their pocket. For instance, a payment in settlement of “all claims made” in a dispute may not prevent a new claim from being raised after that concerning the same job because the words “all claims made” don’t cover future claims.
Final Thoughts
Now that you know how to improve your chances of success when settling business disputes, use the aforementioned tips to your advantage and make the most out of the case you’re facing.
