Orange County, California Business Dispute Resolution
Working toward swift and cost-effective resolutions can protect your business against undue costs and liabilities associated with litigation. When you are facing a dispute, use Jacobs & Dodds’ experience in advocating for business clients’ rights through the business dispute resolution process.
Our practice is dedicated to helping small to medium-sized business owners find solutions to prevent business losses and avoid the cost of litigation. Contact us today for a free consultation regarding business dispute resolution.
Whether your business is facing an internal or external dispute, our lawyers can assert your rights in dispute resolution, including mediation and arbitration or providing you with the counseling and legal advice you need to protect your business interests. Before filing a lawsuit, we will make every reasonable attempt to settle your business dispute.
There are several alternative dispute resolution methods that can be effective in resolving business disputes. The two most common are mediation and arbitration:
Mediation
Simply put, a mediator seeks to help parties develop a shared understanding of the conflict and to work toward building a practical and lasting resolution. Mediation usually does not take place in front of a judge (although it can). Mediation typically takes place before a lawsuit is filed, although mediation can occur during the course of litigation.
Several different styles of mediation exist. Two of the more common forms are evaluative and transformative.
- Evaluative mediation has an advisory component wherein the mediator evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of each side's legal position. Transformative mediators do not approach mediation in this manner.
- Transformative mediation, in contrast, looks at conflict as a crisis in communication between two or more parties, and seeks to help resolve the conflict, allowing the parties to overcome their differences. The agreement that arises from this type of mediation occurs as a natural outcome of the resolution of conflict.
Mediation serves to identify the disputed issues and to generate options that help the parties reach a mutually satisfactory resolution. If a mediation is successful, the settlement reached is agreed to by all of the parties. This contrasts with litigation, which normally settles the dispute in favor of the party with the strongest legal argument. A judge or jury makes the determination, not the parties.
Arbitration
There is some confusion about the difference between mediation and arbitration. While mediation attempts to resolve business disputes, primarily by defining the dispute and then working to find a practical resolution, arbitration involves the appointment of an arbitrator who listens to the facts concerning the business dispute and then applies the applicable law and renders a decision (award) that may be binding or non-binding on the parties.
Contact Jacobs & Dodds for a free consultation with an experienced business law and transactions attorney or to speak with an experienced Orange County, California, trial lawyer from our business law firm.
Free initial consultations • Phone calls always free • Extensive trial experience • Located next to John Wayne-Orange County Airport
