Law: Alternative Dispute Resolutions

Law is defined as any system of regulations that governs the conduct of the people of a community, society or nation, in response to the need for regularity, consistency and justice based upon collective human experience (dictionary.law.com). This means that laws were created as fair system to help society to keep the peace, shape morals, support social policies, encourage cooperation between different entities, and to maximize individual freedoms. This case in particular involves a breach of a service contract between James’ painting business and Stan. The business dictionary defines a contract as a voluntary, deliberate, and legally binding agreement between two or more competent parties (businessdictionary.com). Because this job was under contract and James accepted a down payment, Stan has every single constitutional right to sue and take legal action against James for nonfulfillment.

Since James lives in Maryland but runs his painting business out of Virginia, and Stan lives in Virginia but works in Maryland, this case implicates a diversity of citizenship. This means that this case involves citizens of two different states or countries. Unless this contract has either a choice-of-law or a forum-selection clause, which are contract provisions that designate either a certain state’s law to be applied or a certain state’s court to hear any dispute concerning the nonperformance of the contract, the Virginia state court should hear this case base on in rem, and venue jurisdiction. First, in rem jurisdiction because Stan’s property is located in State of Virginia and the court have jurisdiction over property found within the state; second, venue jurisdiction because the Virginia state is located closest to where the incident hap...

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...doms. As consumers, we need to research the marketplace about contractor’s license, references, reputation, reliability, and obtain different bids before we decide to sign a service contract that satisfices all of our needs. This will helps us avoid or minimize the legal difficulties implicated with traditional trials and alternative dispute resolutions, as illustrated in this case. Moreover, Stan has every single constitutional right to sue James for a breach of contract at the Virginia state court based on in rem and venue jurisdictions. He feels that James has taken advantage of him and that he is walking away with his money. As a final point, James failed to do the job that Stan hired him to do, violating the binding legal agreement that both parties agreed to.

Works Cited

Hill, G. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=1111