Business Litigation Attorney

When an individual or a business entity has a legal problem with another business entity, business litigation is a means to solve the issue when negotiation and arbitration have not solved the problem. Attorneys who specialize in business litigation represent the parties involved in the dispute.

There are many facets of business litigation, including fraud and disputes over intellectual property. Instances of fraud can include situations where an individual feels that a mortgage broker fraudulently represented a property during a real estate transaction or if the contract process was handled improperly; disputes over intellectual property can include cases of copyright infringement or patent problems.

Then there are issues between businesses and insurance companies. For example, if an insurance company undervalues or denies a fair claim from a company, the company can seek representation of a business litigation attorney to try and recover the money through the process of business litigation.

Business litigation is not the first recourse when a dispute between businesses arises; in fact, business litigation can be a long and expensive process, and the avenues of negotiation and arbitration are always attempted before taking the case to court.

When two entities have an issue, they first try to solve the problem themselves through negotiation. In the example above of a dispute between a mortgage broker and a homeowner, negotiation may include the homeowner asking the mortgage broker to revalue the property in question to a price they feel is correct, or refunding the difference back to the homeowner. The mortgage broker can make an offer as a negotiation, accept the homeowner’s demand, or refuse it completely. If the demand is refused outright, then the homeowner can take the next step, arbitration, to seek restitution.

In arbitration, the two parties would bring their positions and evidence to an independent third party, usually an odd-numbered panel of professional arbitrators, and let them decide the issue. Once the issue is decided in arbitration though, the decision cannot be appealed, is binding, and final. If, for some reason, the parties will not go through the arbitration process or arbitration is unsuccessful, business litigation is the next step.

In business litigation, the steps involved really depend on the issue at hand. In the mortgage broker example, there would most likely be issues at the beginning of the process regarding contractual obligations. Each party would hire a business litigation attorney, a lawyer who specializes in the field of settling disputes between businesses in a court of law, who would act on behalf of his or her client—one of the businesses involved—who would become familiar with the parties and documents involved as well as the dispute at hand.

The business litigation attorney would look through the contracts involved to see if the homeowner had a fair claim, meaning there was some sort of wrongdoing, and evaluate whether or not there was a contract breach. If one occurred, it would be up to the state’s rules of civil procedure to dictate the next step. In many states there are many avenues for the plaintiff to seek restitution, and it would be up to the litigation attorney to decide which available avenue would be most appropriate for the case at hand. In cases where the issue cannot be solved through court motions and further negotiations between the attorneys and their clients, a trial can occur in front of a judge and jury, or just a judge, depending on the circumstances.

This avenue really is the last and least desirable one, because it can become very time consuming and extremely expensive for all parties involved. If the situation should come to that, both sides would present their evidence and testimony of the issue at hand to the judge and/or jury and let the appropriate party decide the case and make the award. Once the award is made, the appeals process can continue on, stretching the case out even more. Some business litigation issues go on for decades with no real resolution.

Business litigation attorneys focus solely on handling disputes between companies and individuals and companies. They must be familiar with their state’s civil procedures, as this is where business litigation issues are heard. The business litigation process really is a process executed when all other solution attempts fail, and individuals involved in these situations often retain business litigation attorneys to represent their interests through the dispute and resolution process.