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Joint venture disputes

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Disputes over joint ventures are different from many other corporate disputes. If there is a Joint Venture (JV) Agreement the parties to a joint venture may be in dispute over its terms. Alternatively there may not be any underlying contracts to the joint venture making a dispute even more difficult to resolve.

Joint ventures are an important mechanism for parties to build a business together. They may either be start-ups or the strengthening of an existing business with, for example, one party bringing tangible assets and the other bringing a concept and knowledge.

However, the key to resolving a dispute relating to a joint venture lies in the way the joint venture has been structured and an understanding of the subtleties of a joint venture operation.

What can make joint venture disputes particularly sensitive - and in some cases unique - is that, unlike disputes which stem from disagreements over existing detailed contracts and agreements, joint ventures are often structured much more informally, without any contract or a JV agreement.

"A strong commercial team frequently instructed in very high value disputes in High Court commercial centres"

Funding a dispute

There are various ways that litigation may be funded. At relevant times in our management of your dispute we will advise you which funding options may apply and which we would be prepared to offer you.

Joint venture dynamics

Understanding the crucial dynamics of a joint venture, and particularly the parties’ interest or ability to execute elements of the joint venture, is critical to its successful resolution.

Our corporate dispute lawyers have considerable experience of dealing with these often sensitive, diverse and complex aspects of joint ventures, including financing which can often be a source of friction between parties to a joint venture.

Finally, bringing a joint venture to an end can be difficult. Often one party wishes to end their involvement whether as funder, director or otherwise while the other party wishes it to continue. Bridging this divide is often particularly difficult but our detailed, carefully considered approach will deliver results.

Case studies

Some examples of our recent experience in resolving joint venture disputes include:

Advising partners to a joint venture founded to develop and promote new technology
Acting for the funder of a joint venture in a dispute over when repayments were due under a JV agreement
Disputes concerning the goodwill existing in a joint venture and its valuation
Disputes concerning the ownership of assets belonging to a joint venture

Recent experience

Understandably, parties setting out on a joint venture do so in a spirit of optimism. However, unless the joint venture is underpinned by a detailed agreement, there is always the danger that certain details are missed and errors made in its construction that give rise to future disputes. Our experienced full service team of solicitors are not only able to guide you through a dispute if it arises, we are also able to help you to structure your joint venture in the first place to prevent problems occurring further down the line.