Partnership difficulties

Working in a partnership is not always easy. Disagreements can and do arise. In the case of dentistry, there is a long list of possible problems that can cause conflict, whether finance, management issues, human resources, clinical or business decisions. If they are not sorted out they can undermine the business relationship.

Partnership agreements often provide for disputes to be referred to arbitration but this is a formal and expensive procedure and not best suited to mending differences.

Court proceedings between partners usually signal that the relationship has come to an end. So the growing field of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) offers an attractive method of dealing with disputes in a way that saves both expense and time and offers the possibility of putting the business relationship back on a sound basis.

ADR is a way of resolving disputes with the assistance of an independent third party. Unlike a judge or arbitrator, the third party is not there to impose a solution on the parties. Instead, he or she acts as a facilitator and explores the issues with the parties and tries to lead them to their own solution.