In any business relationship, an unplanned situation can arise in which different people have different perspectives. For example, your customer, supplier, or other partner does not fulfill its obligations, does not pay due financial obligations, does not deliver the goods on time, etc. And yet, maybe your partner is asking you to fulfill obligations that you are not obliged to fulfill, asking you to pay something that you are not obliged to pay, and so on. From these situations, disputes arise between the conflicting parties that end up in court or another institution. It is necessary to hire an attorney with great knowledge and experience in the field of dispute resolution to take care of your interests.
Pekic Law Office offers professional and quality representation of the interests of its clients in various types of disputes, regardless of the type of procedure. International education and experience contribute to the necessary expertise in this field. In addition to representing in court, our team has the necessary competencies to provide support to clients who are interested in out-of-court dispute resolution, i.e. alternative dispute resolution.
In the following text, you can see examples in which procedures we provide legal services:
Arbitration (and other types of ADR)
What is arbitration?
Arbitration is the method of resolving disputes without trial and is most often applied in the areas of resolving trade disputes arising from domestic and international business relations, as well as labor relations, sports, and foreign investments. If you are an entrepreneur or owner of a legal entity (LLC, etc.), it is in your best interest to entrust the resolution of disputes to an arbitration institution.
Arbitration of disputes is based on an agreement between the conflicting parties which determines the body (arbitral tribunal) that is completely independent and impartial in work and decision-making, and which has the task to resolve the dispute as soon as possible, by applying the law. Arbitration, as out-of-court dispute resolution, is most often agreed upon in a contract that initiates cooperation with a supplier, buyer, seller of goods or services, or another partner. If the parties agree to settle the dispute by arbitration, the court has no jurisdiction and cannot render a decision. Disputes are decided by arbitrators chosen by the parties or an institution entrusted by the parties to choose them, and which arbitrators may be experts in the field they decide on (for example, an arbitrator that is an engineer), unlike judges who are often overburdened with many cases and sometimes they are not familiar with the narrow area of your business. Parties could choose some of the most renowned professors of prestigious law schools, who are experts in the field of trade law and arbitration, to be the arbitrators in their case.
The parties are increasingly opting for arbitral dispute resolution because this procedure is fast, confidential, for some disputes cheaper and more flexible than court proceedings. Moreover, arbitral decisions reached in the Republic of Serbia can be directly enforced in over 160 countries, unlike court decisions that need to be certified, confirmed, translated, recognized in the country where it is enforced, etc. All this requires funds and time, while arbitration decisions are enforced much faster and easier. The most important institution in Serbia for resolving domestic and international commercial disputes is the Permanent Arbitration at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia (CCIS), while the most prominent international institution is the ICC International Court of Arbitration based in Paris, as well as the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA-CPA) in The Hague and others.
Law office Pekic represents clients in the arbitration proceedings from the initiation, representation in the proceedings until the possible annulment proceedings, and other proceedings before the local court in respect to the arbitration decision.
Settlement of disputes before the court (court proceedings)
1) Civil proceedings
- Compensation proceedings for damages – In case you have suffered damage or you are being sued for damages, our legal team represents clients in disputes of compensation for material damage (damage or destruction of property, disabling or hindering the use of property, medical treatment costs, lost profits in the form of unrealized gains, etc.) or non-material damage (personal injury, physical pain, fear, damage to your reputation, etc.).
- Civil proceedings regarding contracts – We represent clients in all phases from the negotiation, to the implementation of contractual obligations and the eventual proceedings for termination of the contract, proceedings to nullify the contract, etc.
- Resolving labor disputes – We represent clients in all types of individual and collective labor disputes, such as the procedure for annulment of contract termination decisions (unlawful termination of labor contract), payment of unpaid wages, determination of mobbing (harassment at work), and compensation for mobbing, discrimination at work, workers compensation for damages, travel expenses, increase in wages for working during the night, on Sundays or public holidays, exercising the right to annual leave, severance pay, etc.
- Insurance disputes – We provide an efficient and complete collection of all types of receivables from insurance companies in the field of life insurance, property, business, or compulsory insurance in traffic.
These procedures are just some of the procedures in which we provide legal assistance. It would be impossible to list all types of procedures in one place.
2) Extra-judicial proceedings (non-litigation)
Probate proceedings – Our law office is available for its clients in the most difficult moments of losing a loved one to help them and resolve property and legal issues that arose from the passing of a loved one. The services we provide include drawing up a will, a lifelong support contract, a contract for the distribution of property, initiating and representing in probate proceedings, contesting (annulling) a will, etc.
3) Enforcement procedure
If your business partner does not fulfill its financial obligations or does not fulfill them on time, it can create a number of problems for your business, which, in the worst case, can cause temporary insolvency. In such cases, your only option is to collect your claim through what is called an enforcement procedure. Our law office takes care of the interests and business of its clients by assisting them to collect their claims from debtors based on invoices, bills of exchange, mortgages, court decisions, enforcement of foreign court decisions, and arbitral awards in Serbia or other legal grounds in the fastest and simplest way. The services we offer include drafting a claim for enforcement, advising on enforcement proceedings, challenging enforcement decisions, etc.
Peaceful settlement of disputes
If you have reached an agreement with the conflicting party to resolve your dispute without trial that still does not mean that our services will not be useful to you. We provide a wide range of legal services in the process of peaceful resolution of disputes, from the preparation for negotiations, and conducting negotiations, to finding a compromise solution. Peaceful settlement of disputes is not reserved only for some types of disputes, it is possible in commercial disputes, civil disputes, labor disputes, and others. Conciliation, negotiation, and mediation procedures are just some of the procedures for the peaceful settlement of disputes in which we provide legal assistance.
Republic Agency for Peaceful Settlement of Labor Disputes
We place special emphasis on the procedures implemented by the Republic Agency for the Peaceful Settlement of Labor Disputes, which is the first specialized institution dealing with labor disputes. In other words, this is an agency for resolving individual and collective labor disputes, with the goal of ending the dispute within 30 days, in a professionally conducted procedure. Regardless of its name, the Agency for the Peaceful Settlement of Labor Disputes is also an institution for the arbitral settlement of disputes. Just as there is a Permanent Arbitration at the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, which resolves trade disputes, there is the Agency for the Peaceful Settlement of Labor Disputes for resolving labor disputes (unlawful termination of the labor contract, unpaid wages, etc.). In fact, the procedures conducted by the Agency for Peaceful Settlement of Labor Disputes and the Permanent Arbitration of the CCIS are very similar, as they represent an alternative to court and civil procedure, are faster than a court trial, and apply their own rules of procedure, which is why they differ from each other merely by the disputes which they resolve (labor or commercial disputes).
If you have a question regarding a certain dispute or you are interested in the estimate of costs of the procedure you would like to initiate, write us an email at [email protected], use a contact form on our website, or type us a message on Facebook Messenger or Linkedin.