In North Carolina, business disputes commonly occur over a variety of different matters. Most often, businesses can disagree on the terms of contracts and prior arrangements. Property matters and billing issues also frequently form the basis of disputes between businesses.

What to Do in a Business Dispute?

If you are involved in a business dispute in Canton, North Carolina 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. If there are no dispute resolution clauses in the contracts, or there are no attending documents at all, the parties may always resort to the courts to resolve the dispute. In trying to discover the best resolution for two parties who have not agreed beforehand on a resolution, North Carolina courts will use particular legal principles designed for the situation. Each state has different business laws about dispute resolution and contract law. An Attorney practicing in Canton can help you handle your dispute in accordance with the applicable North Carolina laws. 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

Contracts often have clauses requiring that a dispute be handled outside of court. This is called Alternative Dispute Resolution or ADR, and it includes 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. In Canton, Attorneys practiced in ADR can help if your business dispute is to be resolved out of court.