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Showing posts from September 27, 2015

The BUSKLAW October Newsletter: Do Your Contracts Discourage Litigation?

If you are a business person working with contracts, you probably already know that lawsuits - regardless of their outcome - are expensive and time-consuming. And "alternative" dispute resolution procedures such as arbitration don't fare much better if standard arbitration clauses are used. (I use a unique arbitration clause that streamlines the process.) It's better to avoid litigation or arbitration altogether; the best way to do that is to have a contract with provisions that discourage one party from filing suit - or an arbitration petition - against the other party.  What might these anti-litigation, anti-arbitration contractual provisions be? Several come to mind: 1.  A provision that in any lawsuit or arbitration between the parties, the losing party must pay the winning party's attorney fees and court costs. As Attorney Stephen Hulst points out in his Michigan Business Court Blog (9/1/2015) , "It's a good piece of leverage to have, to be ab