Commercial Contracts

Whether you are in the business of buying and selling goods or providing services and whether your market is within the UK or global, all of these transactions will be based around a contract and probably one that has been carefully drafted and thought through many times. When people’s rights and obligations are so clearly set you would have thought that the scope for disputes was negligible. Unfortunately that is not the case. Sometimes the company encounters cashflow difficulties and is not able to pay for the goods. Sometimes they may simply be claiming that what was supplied was not what was agreed. On other occasions situations outside of their control may impact upon the other party’s ability to deliver his side of the bargain.
Although these disputes do arise, in the business world the paramount objective is to get the business relationship back on an even footing as soon as possible. At Slee Blackwell we pride ourselves in dealing with these disputes on a very commercial, proactive and pragmatic basis, looking at the bigger picture. Obviously it is in everyone’s interest if matters can be resolved quickly and cheaply and with that in mind we certainly encourage where appropriate the use of mediation and arbitration. Obviously there are the occasions where the other side is so bloody minded that you have no option but to litigate and in that event we will work with you to achieve a happy balance between preparing the case thoroughly and preventing the legal proceedings from eating up all your valuable management time.