Several different grounds can give rise to Business disputes in Virginia. Often, businesses will disagree over the exact meaning of terms found in contracts or prior oral agreements. Billing issues and property matters also commonly form grounds for disagreements between businesses.

What to Do in a Business Dispute?

If you are involved in a business dispute in Richmond, Virginia you should first review all relevant documents, including past and current contracts. These documents might contain clauses that dictate how and where you should handle a dispute. If there are no relevant documents, or the contracts do not have resolution clauses, then the dispute might need to be taken to court. Where the parties have not agreed beforehand about how to handle disputes, legal principles have been designed to determine the resolution. When they are called upon, Virginia courts try to discover the best resolution by looking to the facts of the specific situation presented. Disputes over contracts and other agreements are handled differently depending on the laws of each state. Lawyers in Richmond know the laws of Virginia, and can offer individualized advice for those involved in business disputes. An attorney's knowledge of the law may also lead to a more streamlined discussion with the other business about how to resolve the dispute. Negotiations might even enable you to resolve the dispute without going to court.

Alternative Dispute Resolution

Sometimes contracts themselves require that disputes under them be resolved outside of court. Methods of conflict resolution of this form are called Alternative Dispute Resolution or ADR. ADR includes Mediation, Arbitration and sometimes a combination of the two. ADR makes going to court unnecessary, because it is designed to reach the same result that a court would have. Still, some methods of ADR entail their own formal procedures, most enlisting a third party to determine a dispute based on local law just as a judge would do. If your business dispute is to be resolved by ADR, an attorney experienced with these methods in Richmond can counsel you throughout the process and develop the case you will present.