Mediate Michigan

Breaking up is always hard to do, but it is very possible that it is hardest when you’re breaking up with your business partner. Although it may seem simple to just hire lawyers and allow them to handle the proceedings, that is often not the case. Just ask any business owner who has had to deal with a breakup in the business world.

Often business partners looking to split head directly to their lawyers and to court. But, Silvana Raso, a partner at the New Jersey-based law firm Schepisi & McLaughlin, contends that mediation might be the better route. Raso has the following warnings to businesses that may be headed to a proverbial “divorce court.”

• The owners cede control of their business to strangers – the lawyers and judges who likely have little or no practical experience running a business, and have limited knowledge of the business that is now the subject of the lawsuit.
• Often, the owners lose the right to make any financial decisions and must seek the court’s approval before making any decisions which might affect the business.
• Through litigation, the business owners may have unwittingly made their lawyers new partners in the business: Lawyers are often paid for their work from the profits once shared only by the owners, and those lawyers will be paid before the business owners share in those profits.

via Tips to Make Business Divorce Simple | BusinessNewsDaily.com.