Business Dispute Lawyers in Melbourne

Stop drafting the angry email. Read this first.

The most expensive documents in most business disputes were written before a lawyer was involved: the email that admits the delay, or the DIY demand letter that overstates the claim and hands the other side a defence. If you are in a dispute right now, the cheapest move available to you is to stop putting things in writing and call 1800 130 120. The first call is free, and 15 minutes is usually enough to tell you where you stand.

The business disputes we act in

We act for company owners, directors and family businesses across Melbourne. These are the matters that come through our door most often:

• Partnership and co-owner fall-outs, including a 50/50 split that has stopped functioning, a partner drawing money the business cannot spare, or a shareholder dispute heading toward a forced buy-out.
• Contract fights with suppliers and customers: work not paid for, goods not delivered, a termination the other side says was invalid. A supplier who downs tools mid-contract raises repudiation of contract rather than a simple late-delivery claim. These overlap with our contract lawyers practice.
• A director or key employee who walked, taking client lists, poaching staff, or setting up a competing business while still on your payroll. Speed pays for itself here, because an injunction can protect what a later damages claim can only compensate.
• Money owed and ignored, from a single large invoice to a long-running account, through demand, statutory demand and judgment. Our debt recovery team runs these daily.
• Lock-outs and freeze-outs, where a co-owner is cut off from the accounts, the premises or the decisions. The court has wide power to fix oppressive conduct, and the usual end point is one side buying the other out at a fair price. Once the argument is about who controls the company rather than what it sells, it is really a corporate governance dispute, and the levers available to you change.
• Reputation attacks, where a competitor or a departing partner tells your customers something untrue about the business. The commercial claim and what counts as defamation are separate questions, and they often end up in the same file.

Getting out takes more thought than getting in

Every business dispute we take starts the same way. We read the documents before we give a view: the shareholders agreement, the emails, the accounts, the messages sent at 11pm. Then you get a straight answer on what your best realistic outcome looks like, what it takes to get there, and what you are risking by doing nothing. If the honest answer is that the fight is not worth having, you will hear it on the free call rather than after a five-figure invoice.

Get advice on your dispute

What to do in the first week

Preserve everything. Do not delete messages, even the ones that embarrass you, because destroying documents after a dispute arises breaks the court rules and will be used against you. Read your contract or shareholders agreement before you act, since many contain dispute clauses that dictate the first step. Keep trading decisions clean and documented. Then get advice before you respond to the other side, because your first written response frames the whole dispute.

Where your dispute will be decided, honestly

Most business disputes never reach a courtroom, and we treat court as the pressure behind a settlement rather than the plan. When filing is the right move, the forum matters. The Magistrates’ Court of Victoria hears claims up to $100,000 cheaply and quickly. The County Court has unlimited civil jurisdiction and takes most mid-sized commercial matters. Complex company disputes go to the Supreme Court’s Commercial Court list, where a judge manages the case actively and orders early mediation. Retail lease fights have their own track and must go to mediation at the Victorian Small Business Commission before VCAT will hear them. Picking the wrong forum wastes months, so we work the question out with you on the first call.

Time limits and what waiting really costs

Victorian law gives you six years for most contract and tort claims and fifteen years for a claim on a deed. Almost nobody misses those deadlines. What businesses lose by waiting is leverage. The departed director’s new company takes root, the debtor moves assets, and the witness who remembered the phone call resigns. Your evidence and your momentum drain away at much the same rate. Money already owed does not have to wait for the rest of it, and we usually put commercial debt recovery on the invoices while the wider dispute is still being framed.

Talk to a Melbourne business dispute lawyer today

Call 1800 130 120 or use the form on this page. Bring the contract, the key emails and a rough timeline, which is enough for us to give you a real view. For the wider practice, see our commercial litigation lawyers page, and if you want to understand the settlement pathways first, start with dispute resolution. GET FREE ADVICE.