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Commercial Litigation & Dispute Resolution

Wosskow Brown’s Commercial Litigation Solicitors are here to help our clients with resolving those unfortunate disputes that may arise across a vast range of areas, whether it’s a partnership dispute, an issue with a tenant, or even a warranty claim.

It’s no secret that having an experienced legal expert on your side is a massive help when dealing with a legal dispute. Whether you’re pursuing a claim or defending one, our solicitors will give you valuable advice when dealing with your claim.

Get in touch with our commercial litigation solicitors in Sheffield and Barnsley

Contact our expert commercial litigation solicitors in Sheffield and Barnsley for advice about how to enforce or protect your rights.

We have local offices across Sheffield on Attercliffe Road and in Gleadless and Hillsborough, plus an office in Barnsley.

Give us a call at your nearest branch or fill in our online enquiry form, and we’ll give you a call back as soon as possible.

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We’re a team but we’re also proud of the individual people who work here. We’re confident you will find us approachable, understanding and experts in our field.

Commercial Legal Services

Director Disputes

Being a director of a business means sometimes having to deal with problems that arise between you or other people in your business. Whether the disagreement is between you and other directors or even with shareholders, it’s important to resolve the issue as efficiently and effectively as possible, so that the business doesn’t suffer as a result.

The dispute could be about a director breaching their duties, disproportionate salary differences, the future of the business, or several other things.

A director breaching their duties or contract is a common cause of disputes amongst directors in a business. If you’ve been formally appointed as a director on the board of a UK company, certain duties come with this role, and they are legally binding. These duties include a duty of care (doing directorship work with a reasonable level of skill), acting for ‘proper purposes’ (which essentially translates to not stealing assets from the company), and promoting the success of the business.

Partnership Disputes

Running a business with someone is great. Being a team and succeeding together feels amazing and builds a strong bond between you both.

Unfortunately, running a business can also be a rollercoaster. Even the most successful business can break down if a dispute between the business partners arises. If problems do arise, don’t hesitate in seeking our expert legal advice, as we know how important it is to resolve business-related issues as efficiently as possible. Having been in partnership for many years, Wosskow Brown is happy to share its knowledge and expertise.

Sometimes, a simple partnership dispute has the potential to spiral out of control. Such problems can cause strain on the business itself, as well as your long-term relationship with your business partner. Our dispute resolution solicitors are on hand with their expert legal advice. We can help resolve your business-related issues and avoid these issues having a detrimental effect on your company.

One of the most important factors in partnership disputes is a Partnership Agreement or the lack of one. This document sets out the partners’ rights and responsibilities, acting as an efficient tool to prevent potential disputes, or can be a great source of reference if a dispute does arise.

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Contract Disputes

Commercial contracts can be complicated and, therefore, give way to a whole host of disputes of varying shapes and sizes. Sounds stressful, right? Worry not, because we are experienced experts in this field and will help you with any contractual disputes that come up.

The contract could be with a customer, a supplier, or any other person or company that you’re doing business with. As always, the key is to find the best solution to the dispute as efficiently as possible to avoid disrupting your business operations. Furthermore, a dispute with someone you work with doesn’t have to mean the end of your working relationship. Our solicitors will help you maintain these relationships, possibly through mediation if suitable.

Shareholder Disputes

Unfair Prejudice Claims

A shareholder, in this case usually a minority shareholder, can make a claim for unfair prejudice if the company has been run (by the majority shareholders) in a way that is unfair against the interests of the others.

An example of what may cause this type of claim to arise would be for the majority shareholders to allocate new shares, but dilute your share of the company in doing so.

These types of claims can be made under Section 994 of the Companies Act 2006. Usually, a successful unfair prejudice claim will result in the Court ordering the majority shareholder who has acted wrongly to buy the shares of the minority shareholder for a fair price.

Breach of Shareholders’ Agreement

A shareholders’ agreement is in place to regulate the relationship of the shareholders of a company, setting out rules on the sale of shares and appointment of directors, amongst other things. These documents are used alongside the articles of association but have even more detail about certain aspects, including the shareholders’ relationship.

Of course, it’s easy to see why disputes can arise when a shareholder breaches the terms of the agreement. Maybe one shareholder appoints a director that the other shareholder doesn’t like, or without even informing them of the decision. There are endless reasons why a dispute may come about between two or more shareholders.

Sometimes, a shareholder may violate the agreement, but their actions may still be found to be valid. But if you can show that another shareholder’s contract breach has resulted in some form of loss for you, such as the devaluing of your share, then you may be able to claim for breach of contract against the other shareholder.

You should seek legal advice as soon as you suspect a potential dispute between you and another shareholder. At Wosskow Brown, our solicitors are incredibly experienced and well-equipped to help you resolve the dispute and find a satisfying solution.

Dividend Claims

One of the main incentives for shareholders to get involved with a business is dividend payments. A dividend is a sum of money paid (usually annually) out of the profits of a business to a shareholder.

Dividend disputes can often arise when the minority shareholders accuse the majority shareholders of manipulating profits in a way that avoids dividends being paid but still manages to take profits for themselves.

Dividend claims can be successful if the business’ constitutional documents contain a dividend policy which sets out rules for the benefit of the shareholder. If a dividend policy has not been followed, the claiming shareholder is likely to be successful in a claim of unfair prejudice. Even if no policy is in place, there are still ways for a shareholder to successfully claim some money in dividends. Directors of a business have a duty to consider whether or not dividends should be paid.

Retention of Title Claims

If you own a business, insolvency is a fear, of course. But as a supplier, it’s an even bigger fear. Many suppliers give their customers credit on goods, but this risks not being paid in full. If you’re a supplier and one of your main customers goes into insolvency, this is a major threat to your cash flow and therefore overall survival.

A Retention of Title clause is crucial for suppliers to protect them from such issues. This clause means that the ownership of goods stays with the supplier, rather than the business that bought the goods, until full payment is made. Therefore, if a business that happens to be one of your debtors goes into insolvency before paying you for your goods, you can retrieve the goods you sold to them.

Post Corporate Disputes

Warranty Claims

The law assumes that two parties who have a contract together containing promises and representations must stand by these. Therefore, a breach of warranty claim can arise when a seller or provider fails to fulfil the terms of a contract or promise made within that contract.

For example, a dispute may occur when a seller denies that the faultiness of a product falls under the scope of the warranty and therefore refuses to replace or repair it.

For any warranty claims or disputes in this area, please contact us at Wosskow Brown, we are always happy to help you.

Landlord and tenant disputes

Disagreements and issues between landlords and tenants are common; it’s a relationship that people have been struggling with for a long time as their interests can clash. Maybe the amount of control a tenant wants over how they use the property is slightly more than the landlord’s ideal. Maybe a landlord increases the rent that the tenant has to pay, and the tenant is angry with this.

There are many ways a dispute between landlord and tenant can arise because, remember, this type of relationship can vary from residential to commercial. It could be a business owner renting a space for their business, which of course gives us a whole new list of possible disputes.

Essentially, most of these disputes arise when either the landlord or tenant breaches the contract. Whatever the reason for the dispute, our solicitors will give their best efforts to help you come to a satisfying solution as quickly and cost-effectively as we can.

Evictions

One of the most common types of disputes that comes up between landlords and tenants is eviction disputes. As a tenant, you may have been evicted without sufficient reasoning; this may be a case of unlawful eviction.

There are some scenarios in which your landlord is legally allowed to evict you, which involves doing it through a court order. If they do not follow the correct legal procedure for your eviction, your landlord could end up facing prosecution.

Unlawful eviction is a serious legal issue, and we know how stressful and frightening it can be as a tenant in this situation. Please don’t hesitate to contact us at Wosskow Brown to help you.

Alternatively, you may be a landlord who has someone staying in one of your properties who doesn’t have the right to do so. Again, contact us to help you with finding the best solution for this issue.

Rent recovery

If you’re a landlord with a tenant who isn’t paying rent, it can be difficult to know what to do. Especially with the after-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis, people have been struggling to pay rent due to job uncertainty and in some cases redundancy and unemployment. This means that landlords may not have been getting the rent owed by some tenants.

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Get in touch with our commercial litigation solicitors in Sheffield and Barnsley

Contact our expert commercial litigation solicitors in Sheffield and Barnsley for advice about how to enforce or protect your rights.

We have local offices across Sheffield on Attercliffe Road and in Gleadless and Hillsborough, plus an office in Barnsley.

Give us a call at your nearest branch or fill in our online enquiry form, and we’ll give you a call back as soon as possible.