There is nothing more disruptive to a business whether that business be a public company, private company, government enterprise, not-for-profit entity or a sole trader than to have a dispute with a customer, employee, supplier or other stakeholder. In many cases the dispute seems to occupy the whole time of not just one but several key employees within the business and depending on the nature of the dispute you sometimes get the feeling that it is about to consume the whole business.
How do you deal with disruptions like these after your attempts at negotiation seemed to have made little progress at least from your perspective. Is the next step to see your lawyer and consider legal proceedings which may be costly, time consuming and may not provide a suitable outcome if there is a long-term business relationship that needs protecting or is there another solution.? ADR and in particular the process of mediation has developed over the last 20 years to deal with matters such as these and it is particularly useful in multi-party disputes. The process of mediation is often prescribed by courts in Australia and overseas as being a necessary step to be undertaken before a commercial or civil matter can be bought forward for judicial determination.
Commercial disputes generally centre around a variety of contractual matters such as the provision of banking and financial services; the construction of commercial, industrial and residential property; the provision or receipt of franchising services and the dissolution of a variety of business associations such as a partnership in the accounting, legal and medical professions. In fact the provision or receipt of any form of commercial service has the potential to raise a dispute especially in these time of consumer activism.
The team at ADR Partners are particularly experienced in the dealings of the commercial world and have deep knowledge of the process of mediation that will assist the disputants in uncovering creative solutions to their issues enabling them to reach solutions that a judicial determination cannot. Furthermore, the use of the team at ADR Partners will provide a timely, cost effective and confidential solution to all manner of commercial disputes allowing you to get on with what you do best i.e. running your business.
