It started with a court case, important for further existence of the limited liability company. The Client commissioned the Law Firm to conduct a case for exclusion of a shareholder from the company. It seemed that the trial would be long, difficult and combined with proving whether the moment had definitely come that the partner should leave the company by virtue of a court decision.
Already at the first hearing, the court proposed mediation to the parties, which they agreed to with some reluctance. The beginning of the mediation was difficult, one could say that it did not prognosticate successfully. But in such situations a lot depends on the mediator, his or her experience, sense of the situation and determination. The same should also be expected of the parties’ representatives, who either want to get into a years-long process/processes with an unknown course, or have the satisfaction that they at least tried to settle the Client’s case in a quick, optimal and comprehensive manner.
After analysing the needs of the mediating parties, the mediator and the representatives, including the lawyers of the Law Firm, came to the conclusion that, due to the number of disputes related to the participation of the shareholders in the company, these disputes cannot be dealt with comprehensively in court mediation, which is limited to the specific case covered by the claim.
Therefore, a contractual mediation was initiated before the same mediator, which dealt with all contentious issues, including property and non-property, in-court and out-of-court, related to the comprehensive settlement of the Client and the partners, the settlement of the credit claim and related securities provided by the shareholders. The mediation proceedings lasted several months and involved not only the parties to the litigation, but also the Client’s related parties, which allowed the case to come to a definitive conclusion.
With such extensive mediation proceedings, the entire team of the Law Firm’s lawyers started and ended the day working on the settlement. The substantive, procedural and organisational efforts resulted in a settlement that was fully approved by the district court. Also, the parties, respecting months of discussions and arrangements, executed the settlement agreement in its entirety. As lawyers, we have proven that even long-standing disputes of high value and gravity can be resolved through mediation. It is necessary to convince the Client that it is worth going down this path, to have an idea of how to conduct mediation and achieve the goals that the Client sets for us, and to have partners at the table who understand and accept these processes.