Commercial Litigation - Litigation and Dispute Resolution
We apply our keen understanding of the law and the court systems combined with strong advocacy skills to benefit both personal and corporate clients. As strong negotiators, we focus on resolving disputes in order to avoid costly courtroom battles. When necessary, we use courtroom litigation forcefully and effectively to advance and defend our clients’ interests. We regularly represent clients in construction disputes, appellate advocacy, collections, name and intellectual property protection, and security/lien priority disputes.
Smith & Johnson, Attorneys attack each piece of litigation by using a team of highly skilled litigators to develop legal strategies that meets the specific needs of each client, whether it is a small start-up or a multinational corporation. Smith & Johnson’s comprehensive team approach creates a legal strategy that gets results for our clients.
We understand that the right business solutions are different for each and every client. We will take time to understand each client’s business, then tailor a sophisticated comprehensive plan of action to obtain the right result. We develop a cost effective strategy that allows the client to budget for these unexpected business problems.
Litigation and Dispute Resolution Areas of Service
- Appellate Practice
- Construction Litigation/ADR Law
- Employee Benefits Litigation
- Employment Litigation
- Environmental Litigation
- Insurance Litigation
- First Amendment Defamation Litigation
- Probate Litigation
- Product Liability Law
- Real Property Litigation
- Mediation and Arbitration
- Tax Appeals
- White Collar Criminal Defense and Compliance
Case Studies
We sued a shoreline municipality that had arbitrarily created a new zoning district bisecting our client’s property. When we proved that the rezoning’s purpose was to stop the second phase of our client’s condominium project, the municipality settled, allowing the developer to complete the project and collect monetary damages for the delay.
In a case where a struggling business owner had borrowed money from numerous sources and had given each creditor a lien as security, we were successful on behalf of a client in asserting a priority claim and getting our client paid ahead of other creditors when the business assets were liquidated.
A client who bought a parcel of land together with an easement for ingress and egress found his access blocked by an irate neighbor who refused to acknowledge the easement. We were successful in bringing a quiet title action to enforce the access rights and prevent our client’s property from being landlocked.
When two controlling shareholders sought to force a buy-out of the third shareholder, we implemented a strategy which accomplished their goal without litigation by creative use of the rights of majority shareholders while affording a “fair” price to the minority shareholder.