As a business owner, you know that you, your customers, suppliers, business partners and co-shareholders may have different interests and differing objectives. Contracts may lend themselves to various interpretations. Good intentions may not always be fulfilled. Sometimes, business people try to take unfair advantage of their customers, suppliers, business partners or co-shareholders. In a growing number of cases, one or more parties act fraudulently or breach their fiduciary duties.
Often, the courts are not the only alternative for litigation of the resolution of such business disputes. However, in a growing number of cases, parties choose to resolve their disputes by commercial arbitration. The role of arbitration in business has been the subject of many articles, including one recently presented by Senior Partner Igor Ellyn, QC, to the Schulich School of Business at York University, called the Role of Arbitration in International Business. The central feature of arbitration, whether international or domestic, is that the parties agree on the process for reaching a binding decision and the person or persons (i.e. the arbitrator) who will decide the dispute.
International commercial arbitration is the most common method for resolving disputes arising from agreements between businesses in different countries. The lawyers of our firm are experienced in the application and implementation of arbitration from advice to concept and from advocacy to enforcement. Our lawyers will advise when arbitration is a better option than litigation for the resolution of your case. Igor Ellyn has also made recent presentation on this topic entitled Litigating Shareholder Disputes: Commercial List or Arbitration.