Litigation and Dispute Resolution
Favret Carriere Cronvich law firm has experienced business litigation specialists, focused on helping individuals, businesses, and associations find solutions to civil disputes. Whether you’re a plaintiff or a defendant, we offer expert knowledge, insight, and experience in order to obtain fair, equitable and expeditious resolution to any legal challenge.
Favret Carriere Cronvich recognizes the uniqueness of each client’s case and understand that for many issues, a favorable resolution can be achieved through effective communication and early negotiation.
Oftentimes pre-litigation strategy and negotiations can provide swift outcomes avoiding the potential operational and financial disruptions of a trial and appeal. However some disputes require extensive litigation. If necessary, we will enter the courtroom with confidence, armed with the legal insight, industry knowledge and experience to ensure our clients the best outcome possible.
From simple disputes to complex commercial and/or financial disagreements, Favret Carriere Cronvich provides the skilled representation clients need for their situation.
Contract Disputes
- The cornerstone of any business relationship, contracts define your rights and responsibilities, and your options for dispute resolution.
- Breach of contract disputes can range from failure to provide service or payment, to consumer issues, disputes regarding goods, deviations from building plans, to warranty claims or disputes arising after purchase or sale agreements.
- In some cases, contract disputes can be resolved with a demand letter drafted by our expert litigation team.
Ownership Disputes
- When multiple people share ownership in a piece of property, business or other thing, breakdowns in relationships can lead to disputes over each owner’s rights.
- Ownership, as defined by the law and jurisprudence, can depend on factors other than payment of deposits or ownership documents.
Partnership Disputes
- Differences of opinion can quickly escalate to harsh disputes that can disrupt the very foundation of a business and affect everyone involved therein.
- From disagreements about fiduciary or statutory duties to disputes over governance or allegations of misconduct, discrimination, or fraud, an external perspective is necessary to provide a clear business-focused plan for resolution.
- Legal counsel is a prudent choice when negotiating or litigating.
Collections
- Even the most well established, defined, and controlled credit systems will encounter situations involving contested debts, late payments, or the like.
- No business can avoid the bad apple customer. If you need help collecting, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Unfair Trade Practices Claims (LUTPA)
- Defined as practice or act that is deceptive, fraudulent, or causes injury to a consumer, unfair trade practices include actions that violate consumer protection laws. Typical examples of such practices include misrepresenting a product or service, falsely offering free gifts or prizes, not complying with product standards, and deceptive pricing.
- Also included within the scope of unfair trade practices is unfair advertising, which is broadly defined as promotional information that misrepresents a product, service, or price. This could include promoting inaccurate prices, sharing phony endorsements, or marketing product characteristics that are exaggerated or inaccurate.
Business Property Damage
- Property damage claims are often time-sensitive as lengthy legal actions can dramatically reduce the cost-effectiveness of any recovery.
- Common property damage causes include wind, hail, fire, flooding, fallen trees, lightening and plumbing failures.
Business Disputes
- The realm of business disputes encompasses a vast range of issues, the most common of which are contract disputes (see above) and partnership disputes.
- In many circumstances, if there aren’t many factual or legal disputes, avoiding litigation through early negotiation or mediation might serve the best interest of the client.
Insurance Claims
- A business carries a variety of insurance coverage: Commercial General Liability (CGL), property damage, flood insurance, business interruption insurance, and workers’ compensation. When situations arise and you need those policies to provide coverage, insurance providers are not always as cooperative as you’d expect.
- Louisiana legal statutes discourage, and in some cases, penalize insurance providers who do not provide the coverage their policy promises in a timely manner.
Real Estate Disputes
- From landlords to tenants, banks to lenders, neighbors, everyone involved in real estate transactions or ownership thereof can be affected when disputes arise.
- Legal counsel is often advisable when facing especially touchy matters such as rent reviews, lease renewals, boundary disputes, or issues related to property management.
Non-Compete Disputes
- Non-compete clause disputes vary from state to state, as can their enforceability. Typical non-compete covenant disputes arise from issues such as failing to inform employers of work with potentially competitive companies, sharing trade secrets, or giving competitors access to company materials.
- Non-compete clauses can present a variety of complexities that are best explained by a specialist in the area of workplace and employment law.
Insurance Coverage
- If your insurance company denies coverage for a loss, the financial impact can be devastating.
- Common insurance coverage disputes stem from issues involving non-disclosure, material misrepresentation, and avoidance; validity and scope of ‘blanket’ circumstantial notifications; waiver, affirmation, estoppel and reservations of rights.
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FAQs
Commercial litigation is a broad term that generally covers legal disputes involving businesses or business owners. For example, partnership disputes, breach of contracts and unfair trade practices claims.
If your business is your livelihood for you, your family and employees and it becomes exposed to financial risk or ruin; you have been sued or need to bring a lawsuit against a company; you need to immediately consult with an experienced commercial litigator. Time is of the essence and can be the difference between victory and defeat.
Commercial/Business litigation come in a variety of forms. When a business is sued for causing injury such as a slip and fall, most businesses have a general liability policy that covers the defense and costs for those claims. When your business contracts with another business to perform certain duties or labor and that company fails to perform, it is likely going to cause your business to be in a dispute. Commercial/Business litigation is the general practice area which encompasses these type of disputes.
In Louisiana, mediation and arbitration are alternative dispute methods. Mediation is generally the precursor to arbitration and is generally not binding. In mediation both parties are usually interested in resolving their dispute and agree to appear before a third-party neutral to help resolve their differences. Arbitration is generally binding between the parties and is used to bring the dispute to a final resolution. If both parties agree to binding arbitration, an arbitrator, usually a lawyer or former judge, makes a final determination of the matter after it has been heard. That final determination is not appealable.
In Louisiana, contracts can be written or verbal. Certain contracts must be in writing to be valid, such as the transfer of property. In addition, in order to have a valid contract, certain factors must be met. In order for a contract to be valid, the persons/parties must have the capacity to consent and freely/voluntarily do so.
Assuming the contract is valid, when one party fails to perform in accordance with the agreement, that party can be deemed to be in breach. At that point, the non-breaching party can demand that the breaching party perform and also recover damages.
Non-compete agreements are controlled by statute, specifically, La. R.S. 23:921. A non-compete controls the employee/partner actions after they have been terminated or have resigned from the company. They can only control for a maximum of 2 years after employment. Non-competes are particularly useful for companies that have key employees to avoid them from quitting and opening a business that directly competes.
Absolutely. Louisiana recognizes verbal contracts.
A complex business dispute generally involves multiple parties and potentially multiple lawsuits in different venues.