In the course of business, all kinds of contracts are formed by various groups and most of the time, these are sufficient and no problems arise, but occasionally contracts will be breached. When these cannot be solved amicably by the two parties involved, then an unbiased arbitrator must be called in to settle disputes. This type of arbitration is possibly seen more often in international business dealings than in smaller and more local or national companies. What’s the procedure of securing help when contract disagreements can’t be settled without extra intervention?
To begin with, no contract is complete without special wording in the contract that allows for some type of third party intervention to settle disputes. The first thing a disgruntled business person does when they don’t fully understand a contract taken in good faith with another corporation or an individual business owner has been broken is read the contract until they fully understand it. This will tell them if they were lax in grasping what they signed themselves into and whether or not a clause was inserted for this kind of unforeseen incident.
If it contains such a group of words, then following the directions of the clause will be the first guideline. If no such guidelines are written into the contract, then the next step is to contact a business lawyer who understands commercial contracts fully to ask for advice how to succeed. Of course, large international corporations are so well supplied with lawyers and others who do nothing but see that they stay out of trouble with their business dealings, they will immediately know what to do. But not so the smaller business person with no such security padding; they will need outside help.
Where can they expect help and how do they proceed? Online there are innumerable such organizations that willing and able to offer assistance: Each country will have their own Better Business Bureau that will at least try to keep their commercial practices under control and doing what they are supposed to do. Therefore, if a citizen of the United States or a Canadian suspects a business is not living up to what it claims to be, getting in touch with the Better Business Bureau is the first option.
Next, The AAA (The American Arbitration Association) is “the nation’s largest full-service alternative dispute resolution provider. Their concerns are employment, intellectual property, health care, financial services, construction, international, technology and consumer issues.
Their methods of dispute resolution call for either arbitration, mediation or maybe some other out-of-court means upon which both parties can agree. Local court systems have their ways and means of dispute resolution. Counseling services are free to the indigent and to those who have no means of paying.