50+ SAMPLE Resolution Agreement

What Is a Resolution Agreement?

A resolution agreement is a legally binding contract to settle a dispute between you and another party so you do not have to go through the trial system or stretch the process if you are already in court. A resolution agreement being a legal document is definitely serious. However, that does not imply that the document has to be overly complex and elaborate. Create a simple resolution agreement with the help of this resolution agreement file and make sure that the contract is easily understood by all. In addition, the dispute resolution clause in a contract lays out a mechanism for the resolution of disputes between the parties involved. Many agreements occur under the assumption that nothing will go wrong. However, there have been cases where a dispute was brought forth even 10 to 20 years after the agreement was made. There is always a chance that a dispute will occur, and hence, a dispute resolution clause in the contract allows for speedy resolution at mutually agreed upon terms.

What Is Resolution?

Unless you have a legal degree or have worked in the field, you may not even know what arbitration is, which can make it difficult to understand why you would need an agreement for it. Resolution is a way to avoid a lawsuit or going to court when you need to resolve a dispute. While the process for arbitration may be similar to a court proceeding in many ways, it is a way of avoiding going to court. The resolution process involves lawyers for each party, an exchange of information about the situation, a hearing of sorts that includes bringing in any witnesses, and the opportunity for each side to present their case for the situation. At the final part of this process there is an arbitrator, like a judge, who will make the final decision. The arbitrator could be a lawyer who is impartial to either side, a retired judge, or another type of individual with experience in the legal field.

In addition to this, resolution is a much more informational method when compared to a court proceeding or even litigation because it is a simplified procedure. Also, during resolution, each party has a more limited right to try to get documents or other types of information from the other party. The entire process will take place in a conference room instead of a courtroom.

What Is the Importance of Resolution Agreement?

When a business finds itself in a dispute, the dispute resolution clause of a contract or partnership agreement decides how efficiently it is solved. A clear and concise dispute resolution clause will undoubtedly save you and your business time, money and headaches enroute to a speedy resolution. Hence, it is vitally important to the running of your business and financial security that you thoroughly define all terms in a contract. When you are working on assumptions, there is a significant chance that another party will dispute those assumptions and a subsequent dispute resolution may find your assumptions to be wrong. Here are some reasons why you should always have a dispute resolution clause in the contract:

Solve Disputes Easily

A Dispute Resolution clause chalks out who can help resolve a dispute, when, where and how. In case of a dispute, this avoids prolonging any disagreement by starting the resolution process quickly. When a dispute occurs, there are multiple ways that it can be solved.

Avoid Litigation

The judicial system can take over a year or more to come to a decision on the dispute. When a dispute clause has not been agreed upon and not added to the contract, the parties involved are forced to approach a tribunal or court that has the legal authority to come to a decision on the dispute. However, solving a dispute in the court is expensive, tedious, and public. And, a case that goes to court is immediately in the public eye and can be scrutinized by the media. This can have adverse effects on the brand and company public relations.

Salvage Business Relations

In the business environment, disagreements are bound to occur. By selecting an agreeable dispute mechanism beforehand, a dispute can be solved in a clean manner without damaging the business relationship between the parties.

What Are the Benefits of Resolution Agreement?

A resolution agreement is a simple document, but it does have a lot of different components and limitations that you need to understand before you sign anything. Before you decide whether you want to have a resolution agreement, it is crucial to understand the benefits of having one in place for your business and any other businesses or individuals you may work with. These are some of the main benefits of using a resolution agreement for all business relationships:

It is confidential. Using arbitration means that you will not have to publicly testify. No matter what, the details of the dispute will not be put on public record for anyone to find. Instead, they will be kept secret in the confines of the arbitration room so you can make sure that no negative details are leaked.It is faster and less expensive. As you do not have to pay for filing and court fees, you will save money by choosing the arbitration option. It is also faster because you will be able to complete the entire process quicker than if you were to try to go to court over the same matter.You can choose your arbitrator. If you include this as part of your resolution agreement, you can have the ability to choose the arbitrator who will be determining the outcome of the dispute at hand. This can be a very helpful component if you want to try to find someone who may have some specific experience dealing with the type of dispute you have or someone who has a bit of experience in your field and can better understand what is happening as a result.As an employer, you can refuse to hire someone who does not sign the resolution agreement. You have the option of refusing to hire someone if they do not abide by your rules and sign your agreements. The resolution agreement is part of that. This can also be related to not hiring another company to do work for you if they refuse to sign it. If you have something like this in place, you will want it to be active for everyone you do business with anyway.You can avoid including a jury. When you have a resolution agreement, you will not use a jury to help determine any disputes. A jury can be very beneficial in many situations, but they can also be very stressful in a situation where there is a business dispute or even in business matters. It does not usually make sense to use a jury and you can make sure you avoid the entire thing by having an arbitration agreement in place for all of your business relationships.It can help you to avoid hostility. When a case goes to court, there is more of a likelihood that there will be constant disputes and fighting on every single issue. This added hostility may never go away and may even make it difficult for you to do business with others later on. However, resolution is a much more relaxed kind of environment, and while there is an existing conflict, it can be a lot easier to manage without hostility because there is an arbitrator present. Both parties will have to cooperate with each other in order to reach a mutual agreement. This can lead to less hostility and can help keep the reputation of both parties intact.

What Are Some Disadvantages of the Resolution Agreement?

While there are some definitive benefits of using resolution agreement, there are also some disadvantages that you should be aware of. Knowing both sides can help you to make the best decision for your business. These are some of the main disadvantages:

You cannot appeal a resolution decision. Once a decision has been made in the matter by the arbitrator, you cannot fight it any further. This means that you cannot then decide to take the matter to court and you cannot try resolution again with another arbitrator simply because you did not like the decision that was made.

You cannot opt for a jury trial. By definition, resolution does not include any other parties other than the two parties with their lawyers and the arbitrator or arbitrators. You cannot have a jury decide the matter, and if your case has to do with an employment dispute, this is something you want to avoid anyway because jury members tend to side with the employee more often than not.

The exchange of information between parties is limited. In resolution, you may find that it is harder to form a case against the other party simply because there is more of a limitation on the exchange of information than if you were to go to court. In situations where the other party has more documentation and information, you may be at a disadvantage because they may not be required to share all of their information with you for the resolution.

If you have this agreement before a dispute, it can be hard to determine if you want to arbitrate later. This is simply a matter of signing this agreement before there is ever a dispute. You may not ever have a dispute, but if you do and you decide that you do not want to arbitrate, then you will have no other option if you have already signed this agreement. If you try to go against it and void the agreement, you will likely spend a lot of money on legal fees in the process.

The resolution agreement has the potential of being one sided. If you are not the party that has written the agreement, you may find out later that it was written in a way that favors the party who initially wrote it. Before you sign any resolution agreement that you have not written, you should look for any signals that the other party will have an advantage. Ideally, you want to only sign a resolution agreement that provides each party with an equal voice and will not limit you in the process. You also want to make sure that no agreement ever denies you the right to find your own attorney for the dispute and resolution. You may run the risk of not doing business with that person or company if you refuse to sign the agreement, but if they will not alter it to be favorable to both parties equally, you are potentially saving yourself a lot of stress, time, and money later on.

How to Write a Resolution Agreement?

The perfect corporate resolution document is a result of well-crafted sections. Below is a detailed description of the process to guide you to produce legally binding corporate resolution documents:

Step 1: Write the Company’s Name

Corporate resolutions are important documents and could be required by banks or even the courts if it comes to that. The last thing you want is for your corporate resolution document to be disqualified on technical grounds. With the name of the organization and the governing body properly identified, you have kick-started the process of writing a legally acceptable corporate resolution.

Step 2: Include Further Legal Identification

The importance of making your document a legally binding one is further outlined by the need to include another line of legal identification. You cannot take this for granted. Clearly outlining the state where the company was incorporated is very important because different states have corporate laws, which can be unique. This would come in handy for corporate lawyers in the event of a legal dispute.

Step 3: Include Location, Date and Time

It is essential to include the location where the board meeting is taking place. Also, the date and time must be clearly spelt out. A voting quorum is very important at board meetings. To explain the term quorum, it represents the minimum number of participants a body or an organization requires for a valid session to hold.

Step 4: List the Board Resolutions

Every resolution made and agreed upon by the board in a show of hands or verbal vote must be listed in this section of the corporate resolution document. Depending on how important or lengthy the meeting is, this is most likely the bulkiest section of your document. It is advised to include a section for the details of each resolution acted upon during the meeting. This would typically include the discussion, the debates or argument and which member voted for or against which decision. Also, keep the result of the vote.

Step 5: Sign and Date the Document

To round off a legally binding corporate resolution document, you need to make sure the document is signed and dated by the following members:

This verifies the information contained in the document as verifiable truth.

FAQs

How Long Does the Alternative Dispute Resolution Process Take?

It could take as little as half a day, but a full day is quite common and some may take longer. This depends on the complexity of the issues and the stances adopted by the parties.

What Are the Three Alternative Methods of Resolving Disputes?

There are currently three principal methods of resolving disputes: mediation, collaboration, and resolution.

What Does a Dispute Resolution Lawyer Do?

They instruct counsel to attend the trial, prepare trial bundles and all the documentation required by the court both pre- and post-trial. Civil litigation or dispute resolution solicitors issue court proceedings and deal with disclosure and drafting witness statements.

A resolution agreement does not have to be very long to be enforceable. In some cases, it is a short notice in a larger contract or agreement. However, they can also be found in employment contracts or within an employee handbook in the case of employee arbitration or resolution agreements. Generally, this clause will say that any and all disputes between the two parties will be subject to a binding resolution instead of being given the opportunity to go to court. In addition, you may find in some contracts that only certain disputes can be arbitrated instead of a blanketed statement for all disputes. For resolution agreements that are a bit more in depth, they may mention how resolution will be conducted and if there are any limitations as to where it can occur.