Mallesons has formed an integrated team of IT, commercial and dispute resolution experts to assist clients in managing and resolving complex disputes with IT product and service providers.
A typical dispute may develop:
- When a significant problem occurs, the parties inevitably will look to their legal rights under the contract governing the project. This is where clear and useable legal advice can set the scene and position the parties for what follows.
- After clarifying the parties’ respective legal positions - and perhaps rebaselining scope and timing - a project can often be brought back on track. On other occasions the prognosis is less healthy and the dispute may need to be taken to the next level.
In such cases, resolving the dispute will usually mean engaging the supplier in a dispute resolution process. Depending on the nature of the project and the dispute, sometimes a relatively informal process, such as escalating issues to senior management on both sides, will be effective to resolve the dispute. Otherwise, the dispute may need to proceed to more formal and structured processes such as mediation or arbitration.
If a resolution cannot be brought about by these other means, then litigation may be an option. Although in our experience, IT disputes tend to be settled by means other than litigation.
It will not surprise the reader to learn that we advocate seeking legal assistance as early as possible where any dispute begins to loom. Early legal advice can:
- ensure that you are aware of and protect your legal rights
- ensure you understand your obligations and minimise your exposures, and
- help to devise the dispute resolution strategy with the best prospects of success.
At all stages of a dispute, our specialist IT Disputes Team can assist. We can advise you on contractual rights and remedies and on intellectual property rights. We can guide you through, and assist you to manage, any dispute resolution process that may ensue - including litigation, should it come to that.
Lawyers on our IT Disputes Team are regularly involved in major IT system acquisitions and procurements, and in assisting clients to develop strategic procurement relationships. This transactional experience gives the team an added level of insight that is vital for properly managing IT disputes, allowing our lawyers to quickly identify the commercial and legal drivers likely to affect the parties. We can minimise uncertainty and risk to achieve the optimal outcomes for our clients, whether that is through commercial negotiation, mediation or litigation.