📣 Top 5 tips to avoid, or at least mitigate, disputes in 2025

What lessons have you learned to avoid your losses, and improve your wins, moving into 2025?

From over 20 years’ experience as a business dispute lawyer, here are my top 5 tips to help you:

1️⃣Know yourself

Understand your value in all your business relationships. You should also understand your limitations. For greater insight, ask those closest to you – and always err on the side of caution.

2️⃣ Engage an appropriate expert

Once you know yourself, you may realise that you need expert assistance to solve your problem. But which expert should you engage? The wrong expert could cause you more problems. You should seek a specific recommendation from your trusted adviser/s. Then, verify that recommendation with their own Google reviews.

3️⃣ Understand your customer

Do your own due diligence on your customer. For example: Do you have any relationships in common? Are they experienced or new to their industry? Do they have Google reviews?

4️⃣ Sleep on it

With rare exceptions, the proverb “only fools rush in" has stood the test of time. That is because it is true.

5️⃣ Put it in writing

It has been said that “a verbal contract is worth the paper that it is not written on” (i.e., valueless). Whilst a contract can be verbal, it is much more persuasive if it is written. Further, even without a hostile opponent, writing can often help avoid, or reduce, a dispute.

💡 Good luck for the remainderof 2024!