Are you in a serious business dispute with your partner in San Diego or anywhere in California?  Is there a member of your LLC who isn’t carrying their weight?  Is one of the partners in your partnership behind on capital contributions?  Do you think you might need to bring in another investor or associate?  Do you suspect your business partner of theft or commingling of funds or assets?

These are serious issues which often develop between partners in any business venture.  You may feel one of your business associates simply isn’t pulling their weight.  Partnership disputes and disputes between members in an LLC can make the work environment around your company quite toxic.  In addition, many business partners were close friends or family members long before they started their company or partnership.  A dispute may spill over into social relationships which affect the family or a large group of friends.

The experienced business dispute attorneys at the Watkins Firm understand all of the nuances associated with business partnerships and the complex issues which exist just under the surface.   In many cases when you are in a serious business dispute with your partner the problem is actually success!  The business has been successful and has grown past the experience and capability of one of its founding members or partners.  It may be necessary to bring in outside expertise or another principle to guide the business through the next phase of its growth.

Are you concerned about a serious business dispute with your partner and how it might affect your company?  The Watkins Firm takes a unique approach to resolving business disputes which is designed to resolve these arguments quickly and in a cost-effective manner.  Most partnership and LLC related disputes are resolved through effective and leveraged negotiation.  Our skilled attorneys work to establish a good working relationship and common ground.  We help to draw the other party into constructive negotiations and to identify root problems and challenges so they can be resolved.

Pro-Tip: “If you suspect a business partner of theft, is this something you should try to handle on your own? Or is this when you should come and talk to us? You need to talk to a good lawyer right away. Who’s done this. For example, we had a case a long time ago, nine or 10 doctors were working together in our medical practice. And our two or three doctors were worried about something. They came to us and over that weekend, the managing members of the medical corporation took the entire practice, moved it. They changed its phone number, location, changed it’s mailing address and took all the money and assets and bank accounts.

Didn’t even tell where the other partners, where they were going. They showed up for work on Monday and there was no more work. They had disappeared overnight down the street to a different facility with instructions to keep them out. Unbelievable. So knowing something might be going on is the time to come to your lawyer so that we can do things to a discover, whether there’s really something going on and know there there are remedies in the law that can stop that.

We have experts that we use that can look at financial records, better than a regular CPA. They’re called forensic CPAs. They can do a spot audit, and if we find something’s off five bucks, it’s the same as if it’s off 5 million. Numbers should match to the penny. If they don’t, it’s not hard to go find a reason why. Perhaps it’s just a human error, you know, an accounting error. But if it’s not, sometimes we find it leads to real large cases of theft.” – Dan Watkins, Founding Partner

If you are involved in a serious argument with your business partner we invite you to review our podcast Episode 11 – Resolving Business Disputes as well as the strong recommendations of our clients and contact the Watkins Firm or call 858-535-1511 for a complimentary consultation today.