Business disputes in Tennessee often happen in many different areas. Frequently businesses disagree on the exact terms of prior contracts or arrangements. Also, billing issues and property matters can give rise to disagreements in the business setting.

What to Do in a Business Dispute?

The first step when involved in a business dispute in Rutherford County, Tennessee should be to review any documents relevant to the matter, such as contracts. It might have already been determined in these documents how disputes will be handled. Not all contracts have dispute resolution clauses, of course, and occasionally neither business has any documents relevant to the dispute at all. If that is the case, a court might be needed to resolve the dispute. Tennessee 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 specific set of legal principles is used instead. Each state has different business laws about dispute resolution and contract law. An Lawyer practicing in Rutherford County can help you handle your dispute in accordance with the applicable Tennessee laws. With an attorney's knowledge of the law, the parties of a dispute might be able to avoid going to court entirely, since negotiations often proceed more smoothly with representation.

Alternative Dispute Resolution

Disagreements in contracts must often be resolved outside of court according to a dispute resolution clause. Methods of resolving a conflict outside of court are called Alternative Dispute Resolution or ADR. These methods include Mediation, Arbitration and Collaboration. All types of ADR are designed to reach the same decision a court would have, without needing to actually go to court. They carry their own sets of procedures and protocols, and they often involve a neutral third party listening to both sides of a dispute and making a decision based on local law. An attorney experienced with ADR in Rutherford County can counsel you through the process if your business dispute is to be resolved by ADR.