Shareholder Dispute Resolution

Skillfully Resolving Shareholder Disputes

A shareholder dispute can disrupt a business more deeply than any external conflict. When a company is divided within itself, it can be easy to lose direction and squander what you have built.

And if the conflict becomes public, the damage can be irreparable, severely harming your reputation and destroying the confidence of your clients and other companies that do business with you.

At Inch Hammond Professional Corporation, we help protect businesses, as well as the rights of shareholders, directors, owners and managers involved in internal disputes. We can help take care of these situations quickly and discreetly and minimize losses for everyone involved.

Trouble From The Inside

A wide variety of situations can cause an internal conflict, including:

• Breaches of shareholders’ agreements
• Corporate mismanagement
• Breaches of directors’ duties
• Disagreement about business asset sales
• Fraud and fraudulent misrepresentation
• Financial statement irregularities

One frequently used method of addressing concerns for shareholders involves bringing an oppression action against the corporation. Shareholders state that the corporation has done something that is unfairly prejudicial to them or disregards their rights as shareholders. Our lawyers can help you decide whether to pursue this path as a shareholder, and we can help you defend against it if you are a defendant in such an action.

Guiding You Through Dispute Resolution Options

If possible, we can guide you through out-of-court resolution, which can be faster and more efficient than litigation — and certainly more private. If it does not work, we will vigorously represent you in court.

If there is an urgent matter that requires quick intervention — for example, to prevent depletion of assets — we can deal with it in the court system and get an injunction or other immediate relief. We can also seek summary judgment for matters in which it is appropriate to do so, for small and medium businesses that may not have the resources for a lengthy and expensive trial.