Do you remember the film War Games? It is on every Christmas. Always a favourite.  In it, a precocious American teenager hacks into the NORAD mainframe computer and starts playing a nuclear war game against the computer only for the computer to go rogue, and decide to play it for real, and in the process, nearly gets us into WWIII. Fortunately, it was all resolved by playing noughts and crosses. The computer realised its error stating “Strange game…the only winning move is not to play”.

Unfortunately, life isn’t always resolved so simply. So, what do you do when you cannot resolve matters with a simple game of noughts and crosses?

The problem.

So, things haven’t gone quite as expected. Those widgets you ordered don’t quite fit in the machine you manufacture that the widgets are supposed to fit into.  Your supplier is laying low and you need to consider what to do next.

Do you want to work with them again?

Will you have to? It is one thing to end a one-off contract and burn your bridges never to work together again. It is quite another when your opponent has the world’s biggest widget factory and is “the player” in the widget game.

Know your opponent.

Are they bigger than you? With potentially unlimited resources? Can you afford to take it all the way through the court process? Can they?

Money, money, money.

It’s not funny…but usually goes to the heart of a dispute. Find the sweet spot where both sides can ‘win’ and the problem often goes away.

Do you have the resources to fight?

It is not all about money. Even a minor dispute will take time and effort to fight. Large scale commercial disputes could realistically take years to resolve. Always keep your commercial head on in the best interest of the company. Consider the long game.

Where there is leverage, there is a way.

If the referee called a halt now, who is currently winning? Assess your position now and who needs to make the next move.

Have you paid the invoice? Have you got the widgets and the money? Or have you paid up front and have been forlornly looking out the window every 5 minutes for the delivery driver to appear?

Where do you start?

You will need to gather your evidence to support your position. The court expects the parties to have exchanged correspondence and outlined their respective positions before issuing proceedings.

The court will also expect you to consider Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) as part of the process before you start proceedings. You can read more about that here.

Remember – jaw, jaw is better than war, war.

Loosely attributed to Winston Churchill (and he knew a thing about both) and still holds true.

If you have gone through the above and decided X marks the spot and you must play, we would be more than happy to speak with you and see how we can assist.

Commercial Litigation Solicitor

At Gordons Partnership, we have an experienced and specialist team of Commercial Litigators ready to tackle whichever dispute you face.

Please call 020 7421 9421 (London) or 01483 451 900 (Guildford) or fill in our contact form.

About the Author

Justin Reed

Justin Reed

Solicitor