Disputes between Texas business owners can arise due to any number of causes. Your co-owner might lose interest in the business, causing them to put in less work. Your co-owner and you may have different ideas on the direction the business should go (i.e. expand or contract product/service lines, change geographic markets, etc.). A dispute can also arise over the amount of money each owner is being paid. Whatever the issue may be, there are ethical ways to resolve them.
You can try to negotiate or mediate
There are a number of methods that you can resort to in order to break your impasse. The most common (and generally speaking, least expensive forms of resolving business disputes are negotiating and mediating. A negotiating session involves all owners sitting down to try to work out a solution to your issues. Sometimes speaking in a civil and pragmatic manner is enough to iron things out.
You may find that it is better to bring in a third party (a mediator) to supervise your discussion. This may be what it takes to keep things civil. A mediator can listen to both sides of the argument. They can then help the parties come up with a solution is acceptable to all parties. If the solution is written down and signed, it will be legally binding.
Arbitration may keep you out of court
The point of bringing in an arbitrator is to resolve your dispute in a manner that both parties will be compelled to abide by. This may be the last resort that you can adopt before gearing up for all-out litigation.
An arbitrator is different than a mediator. A mediator helps the parties reach agreement on a solution. By contrast, an arbitrator is more like a judge – they hear both sides of the dispute, and then decide the outcome, and that outcome must be adhered to by both sides. The final choice is to go to court – that is, file a lawsuit and resolve the dispute through the judicial process. The judicial process is more expensive and more time consuming than mediation or arbitration.
