In Ohio, 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 a business dispute should happen in Kirtland, Ohio, you should review any documents that are relevant to the disagreement, especially contracts. These documents may have clauses that must be followed when considering how to resolve the 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. 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, Ohio courts try to discover the best resolution by looking to the facts of the particular situation presented. Each state has different business laws about dispute resolution and contract law. An Attorney practicing in Kirtland can help you handle your dispute in accordance with the applicable Ohio 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 Kirtland, Attorneys experienced in ADR can help if your business dispute is to be resolved out of court.