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What Is Commercial Litigation?

by | Apr 22, 2017 | Firm News

Being able to answer the question “what is commercial litigation” is important, especially for business owners.

What is commercial litigation? The basic answer is pretty straightforward: it’s a lawsuit that involves business issues. As you might imagine, commercial litigation can cover a lot of different legal issues, so we’ll try to provide a brief overview of the commercial litigation practice of law.

Types of Commercial Litigation

If there is a legal dispute within the business realm, it usually falls under commercial litigation. Commercial litigation can include just some of the following types of legal matters:

  • Breach of contract
  • Patent infringement
  • Shareholder disagreements
  • Investors’ rights
  • Anti-trust
  • Real estate disputes
  • Class action lawsuits
  • Product liability
  • Business torts
  • Confidentiality agreements
  • Non-compete agreements
  • Fraud
  • Workplace discrimination
  • Breach of fiduciary duty
  • Whistleblower lawsuits

Most commercial litigation matters arise over money, where the winning side wants money for damages suffered. But sometimes, business legal matters concern forcing someone else to do something (or stop doing something). For example, in a breach of contract case, the winning party may not want money, but rather, to have the other side perform an act as it promised. A common example is ordering the losing party to sell a piece of real estate property to the winning party as agreed in a contract.

Commercial Litigation Venues

There are probably as many places to resolve commercial litigation disputes as there are types of commercial litigation matters that could take place. For the most part, almost all potential business lawsuits go before state or federal court. And when there is a lot of money at stake or several parties and companies involved in the lawsuit, the litigation will often take place in federal court.

Other locations where commercial litigation can take place include private arbitrations and government administrative hearings. For example, some workplace discrimination lawsuits are first brought before the applicable federal agency before they end up in court.

Special Commercial Litigation Considerations

The most important overarching principle of commercial litigation is keeping the costs of litigation as low as possible. This is critical because a legal dispute isn’t worth litigating if the costs of going to court outweigh the potential recovery. For those who suffer a legal wrong at the hand of another, this can create an undesirable situation where the victim has to decide whether they should get justice for a high cost, or do nothing and save money, yet let the wrongdoer get away with what they did.

Even when this type of situation doesn’t exist, litigating parties are under pressure to save money. As a result, the parties might turn to less common methods to resolve a legal dispute, such as arbitration. The exact way arbitration can take place will differ, but it’s somewhat like a mini-trial, with an individual or small group of people deciding the case instead of a judge or jury. Also, arbitrations move much faster than trials and offer a simplified litigation process.

Contact Us for More Information

Are you still contemplating the question, “what is commercial litigation?” If so, don’t hesitate to call the Wilbanks Law Firm, P.C. at [nap_phone id=”LOCAL-REGULAR-NUMBER-2″].