Don’t let the situation get personal
Don’t ‘go legal’ unless it is unavoidable.
Give the opposing party a perceived benefit
Let’s take these one at a time. It is all too easy to let personalities get in the way of resolving a problem. It happens all the time and it is sometimes difficult to avoid. An obvious example is the huge amount of money that is continually wasted by warring parties in the divorce courts.
This last truism leads nicely into the second key element. How often have we all heard the comment;
‘The only winners were the lawyers’. That isn’t to suggest that solicitors and barristers should always be avoided because that may not be possible. Dealing directly allows the opportunity to show the opposing party a cost saving on legal fees. The obverse side of that is that if it is only the opponent who is using solicitors, their costs will mount up at a much greater rate, This may weaken their willingness to continue fighting.
The last bullet point is the key to winning a dispute. It won’t be possible until the opponent can be convinced that they are in a weak position and may eventually lose. That established, the benefits for the opponent of conceding range from a saving on time and costs to avoiding the reputational risk of losing a high profile legal action. This last point is more relevant to a franchisor than to a franchisee.
There are many ways to expose the weaknesses of an opponent be they a franchisee or a franchisor.
If the involvement of solicitors is later needed and a legal action eventually becomes unavoidable the preliminary work of exposing vulnerabilities will reduce costs and provide the best possible outcome.
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