Shareholder disputes often start before formal deadlock. Warning signs include withheld information, informal exclusion from decisions, disputed remuneration, unclear loans, refusal to approve accounts, and side arrangements not recorded in company documents.
Gather the MOI, shareholders agreement, resolutions, share register, financial statements, bank authorities, loan accounts, employment documents, and all board or shareholder communications.
The strategy depends on the desired outcome: governance repair, information access, buy-out, urgent restraint, oppression relief, delinquency relief, or winding-up. Each route has different evidence and cost implications.
Early legal advice can prevent a commercial dispute from becoming an expensive evidentiary fight about authority, records, and informal promises.
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