To determine the limits in your state, contact the municipal or district courts in your area. A professional mediator, or team of mediators, will meet with the disputing parties face to face. The mediator will allow both sides to tell their side of the story and try to get each party to understand the other's point of view. In this manner, complex issues can be broken down into comprehensible components. A mediator's decision may or may not be legally binding in a court of law, but it could solve the dispute before it develops into an expensive lawsuit.
Arbitration is another method of settling legal disputes.
Some industries have arbitration boards already set up to handle grievances. The cost of arbitration is significantly less than the cost of a courtroom settlement, and the decision of the arbitrator is legally binding. This method of hearing complaints is frequently used in the securities industry because the arbitrator is likely to have a much better understanding of the workings and terminology of the market than a courtroom judge or jury might have. Attorneys are retained with either a flat fee or a contingency percentage of the monetary judgment, or both. Court costs include filing fees every time a motion is filed.