Two people build a business on a handshake; years later the handshake is the only documentation of the most valuable thing either of them owns. Partnership disputes are the law’s reminder that every business relationship has legal terms — the only question is whether the parties wrote them or the default rules did.
First: What Is This Thing, Legally?
Every file starts with classification. A true partnership runs on the Partnership Act 1890 and any deed — mutual agency, good faith, default equal shares, dissolution rights. An incorporated business runs on the Companies Act — and the fight is a shareholder dispute whatever the parties call each other. The quasi-partnership company sits between: corporate form, partnership substance, with courts importing participation expectations into the section 212 analysis. Classification decides remedies, forums and tactics — ten minutes of legal analysis that reframes the entire dispute.
The Dispute Pattern — and the Exit
The presenting complaints repeat: exclusion from decisions, money moving opaquely, unequal effort at equal shares, opportunities diverted, the unilateral pivot. The destination almost always: a priced exit — one party takes the business, the other leaves paid fairly, liabilities and clients allocated in writing. Getting there well takes the usual method: the financial record compelled and reconstructed; the position letter that prices the exit rather than just naming the sins; mediation, which suits ex-friends even better than ex-strangers; and dissolution or proceedings held visibly in reserve. The prevention version — the partnership deed or shareholders’ agreement written while everyone still likes each other — costs a fraction of any file on this page: agreements and governance.
A Partnership Coming Apart?
Bring the accounts and the story - we will establish what the arrangement legally is, what your share is worth, and the cleanest way out or through.
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