This week we’ve invited Farley Tolpen to join us. Farley is a lawyer and an accredited mediator and became the CEO of Mediation Experts in 2013. Farley has more than 30 years experience working in the law both in the US and Australia. He became a mediator because he came to realize that the courts are broken. Family court, for example, can take up to two years to get to trial. Mediation offers a much cheaper and more effective alternative. Farley has litigated many cases over the years and that has helped him become a good mediator. “One thing they don’t teach you in law school is life experience,” he says.

It’s a new month and time for a new phase of the business legal lifecycle. In fact we’re going to be discussing two phases of the BLL. We’re going to be combining Phase 8: Estate Planning and Phase 12: Retirement. We’ll discuss the reasons why we combined those phases later this month. In this episode we talk about the five reasons why you should challenge a will.

Recovering debt is a big part of any business. If you let the money owed to you get too large it can be disastrous. Without paying clients you don’t have a business. Cash is king when running any business and if your cash flow is too low you risk shutting down. You need to have set-up an effective debt recovery framework early in your business. If you leave it too long you’re not going to be paid effectively. This becomes even more critical when you try to sell your business. If you don’t have a strong cash flow it will significantly reduce the price you can get for your business. We always recommend that you get paid up-front. But that isn’t always possible. That’s when debt collection becomes absolutely critical.

Today on the show we’re going to talk about the six steps to follow when defending yourself in a court proceeding. Getting into legal fights can be expensive and you want to defend yourself in as efficient a manner as possible.

Don’t panic

Getting a summons is a scary thing. But you don’t have to overreact.

Get good advice

You need a team of advisers that you can contact when you get into trouble. Don’t

wait to the last minutes. Make sure you get good advice.

Try and get the case dismissed

There is an option in court called a summary proceeding which can get the case

response. If you can show that the case is totally ridiculous you might be able to get it thrown out.

Make a counter-claim

In most cases you have the ability to make a claim against the person coming after

you. If they owe you money you can make a counter-claim. Both cases are then

heard together.

Consider settling

You can settle the claim right up to the day of the trial. No one is going to be happy

with a court judgement. Settling may be a better idea.

Paying the other sides costs

If you are unsuccessful in your claim you may have to pay the other sides court

costs. Make sure you are on steady ground before you go to trial.

Today on the show we’re going to continue our discussion about debt recovery. Trying to recover money that is owed to you can be one of the most frustrating aspects of business. We’ve invited Angela McDonald the managing director of Optimum Recoveries to join us on the show. Engaging a debt collection agency is your last, best option to get the money that you’re owed.

Today on Fast Fix Monday we’re going to discuss the five steps of the debt collection process.

Contact - You have to contact your overdue accounts. That should be a daily task. People don’t like chasing down others for money but once you get into a rhythm it will get a lot easier.

Written demand - If the contact process doesn’t work you should follow-up with a written demand.

Negotiate - Be willing to negotiate. They many have reasons about why they are not paying, Listen to their concerns and be prepared to reduce the liability.

Debt collection agency - These companies are quite effective at recovering your debt but they do cost money.

Legal action - You’ve sent letters of demand but you still haven’t been paid. Your final option is to go to court. This can cost a lot of money. You want to be sure that the money you are owed is worth the expense.

We’re incredibly excited to have reached our 100th episode! We wanted to celebrate by offering an all-in-one recap of much of the information we’ve covered over the last ten months. We’ve had some incredible interviews with leaders in a variety of fields. We’re going to offer some clips from those interviews. And we’re going to play some clips from our favorite episode.

Today on Fast Fix Monday we are going to discuss how to settle early. This is part of Phase 10: Litigation and Dispute Resolution. There are plenty of ways you can settle your disagreements before they get out of hand.

Today on the monthly legal updater we’re doing something a little different. We’ve invited two guests to join us for a discussion about superannuation and taxes. Brett Griffiths and Kim Reynolds are chartered accountants at the firm Vincents in Brisbane. Combined they both have decades of experience in their respective fields. The firm recently produced a report on the recent Federal Budget. We wanted to hear their perspectives on how the budget will affect small business.

We dig deeper into Phase 10: Litigation and Dispute Resolution today on Business Legal Lifecycle. This phase comes just before selling the business in the BLL. We wanted to put it here in order to acknowledge that disputes and lawsuits are just a normal part of business.