There are many grounds that can lead to business disputes in Indiana. Business may disagree about the terms of contracts and prior arrangements. Billing issues, property matters and other grounds can also give rise to disputes between businesses.

What to Do in a Business Dispute?

If you are involved in a business dispute in East Chicago, Indiana you should first review any relevant documents, including past and current contracts. These documents may contain clauses that dictate how and where you should handle a dispute. However, the dispute may need to be taken to court if contracts do not have resolution clauses, or if there are no documents relevant to the dispute. Indiana courts look to the individual cases in determining the best resolution. Where two parties have not agreed beforehand on how to handle a dispute, a particular set of legal principles is used instead. The laws designed to settle contract disputes are different in each state. Attorneys practicing in East Chicago are versed in the contract law of Indiana, and can help you to handle the dispute should it go to court. With an attorney's knowledge of the law, the parties of a dispute may be able to avoid going to court entirely, since negotiations often proceed more smoothly with representation.

Alternative Dispute Resolution

Many contracts have terms that will determine how a dispute is handled. These are often referred to as Alternative Dispute Resolution or ADR clauses. These methods of resolution include Mediation and Arbitration, among others. 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 decide a dispute based on local law just as a judge would do. An attorney familiar with ADR in East Chicago can counsel you through the process if your business dispute is to be resolved by ADR.