There are four primary strategies to resolve business to business disputes in San Diego:
- Negotiation
- Mediation
- Arbitration
- Trial
Watkins Firm attorneys have decades of experience resolving business to business disputes here in San Diego, and across the State of California. We take a unique approach to litigation which is designed to resolve a dispute or lawsuit in the shortest possible time frame and in a cost-effective way. Negotiation is the fastest and least expensive path to a resolution which accomplishes our client’s goals and objectives. The Watkins Firm attorneys work to efficiently develop a well-documented chronology of events and accurately assess potential damages associated with the dispute. These tools provide the necessary leverage to draw the parties into a leveraged, productive negotiation with the goal of reaching a settlement that resolves the underlying dispute. Our more than four decades of successful trial experience provides additional weight to our client’s side of the table. Opposing counsel know our trial attorneys are prepared to take the case to trial and win, and this provides the incentive to resolve differences much earlier in the dispute.
Mediation and arbitration are two additional strategies to resolve business to business disputes that involve an outside and neutral third party. It is not in your interest to enter into a mediation or arbitration without effective legal counsel. Mediation is a much less formal environment. A neutral expert on the subject(s) at the heart of the dispute is selected by the parties. The mediator works to understand each side’s point of view and works to find common ground and identify potential solutions to resolve the dispute. The mediator will make recommendations based upon their experience and expertise, but the parties are not obligated to implement these suggestions.
Arbitration is more structured than mediation, but not as formal as the legal process surrounding a trial. Arbitration eliminates many of the legal motions and posturing allowing the arbitrator to drive to the center of the dispute and determine an outcome. The arbitrator has the authority to determine a process that often includes briefs from each party’s counsel, marshaling of evidence and testimony, and ultimately a ruling within a few days or weeks. Once the arbitrator issues their finding it is almost always binding upon the parties and cannot be appealed unless fraud or collusion are present.
Pro-Tip: “We want to get the facts down and we want the evidence they have in chronological order, because that’s the best way to communicate to the other party to a third party, to anyone is in chronological order. That’s how we think. Then I want to help our clients analyze the damages. Whether you are feeling like they owe you something, they’re not complying with the agreement or vice versa. We want you to understand more than an analysis of the damages, we help our clients to analyze what it’s going to cost to fight, and also look at the future business. Whether we can salvage this relationship, all of those important things should come into play. We give good advice. Sometimes we’ll even advise our clients how we would think about it and then let them go talk to their partner or whoever they’re dealing with on their own armed with our knowledge and our negotiation technique.
Knowing the facts, the damages, the law of the damages is key, because that gives your lawyer the ability to predict what would happen if you went to trial tomorrow and you won, what would you win? That’s it, that’s the number. In civil court, we’re only focused dollar amounts, getting there and understanding human nature. Preparation for my clients has to do with damages, the law, the facts, and then informing my client.
It’s a dance. The university of Irvine has a law school program that teaches judges how to help people negotiate settlements. They have a long seminar and it talks about perception. And so I’m not a judge, so I didn’t get to go there. But I’ve spoken to many, many judges over the last 35 years and they’ve discussed about how they’re trained. And then they discussed about how many different moves it has to take for both parties to feel that they did as good as they possibly they could have done. And it won’t happen in one offer. I’ve never had it happen. 35 years. Never had someone say ‘I’ll do it for this amount.’ And the other person says, ‘sounds fair to me.’ They wouldn’t be coming to a lawyer.
If mediation isn’t able to resolve every aspect of the dispute, you’re going to go to either arbitration or trial. And as they say, that’s when the hammer comes down, that’s when you tell the other side, I’m not bluffing. If we don’t resolve this, I’m going to take everything. The law gives me in the form of damages or vice versa. I’m not going to give you anything because I’m going to use the law to deny you all your rights; either way. That’s when people put their grievances on paper in legal form and get it into some kind of court or arbitrator’s office, then you have a year and a half to wait or two and a half years to wait while you beat each other up on who’s telling the truth and who’s not telling the truth. We are ready for anything, however, you should know the Watkins is able to protect our client’s goals and objectives and settle the vast majority of our business to business disputes before we ever reach this point.” – Dan Watkins, Founding Partner
When necessary, the Watkins Firm takes our cases to trial to accomplish our client’s objectives. We invite you to review our podcast Episode 10 – The Importance of a Strong Corporate Attorney as well as the strong recommendations of our clients and contact the Watkins Firm or call 858-535-1511 for a complimentary consultation today. Learn more about the effective, proven strategies to resolve business to business disputes in San Diego.
