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 Clinton, 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. The laws designed to settle contract disputes are different in each state. Attorneys practicing in Clinton are versed in the contract law of North Carolina, and can help you to handle the dispute should it go to court. 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 may 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 type 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 decide a dispute based on local law just as a judge would do. An attorney familiar with ADR in Clinton can counsel you through the process if your business dispute is to be resolved by ADR.