partnership, partners, shares2 years ago I sold 50% of my company to a person for 50k. At that point I received only 20% of that amount. Things hasn’t been so great between us, and he is now trying to sell his part, take the money and leave the company in financial issues, as also he has been taking money from the company as salary, while I haven’t.
I know most of the recommendations would be to find a lawyer and fight for the shares that weren’t paid, but is there any other alternative?
I have proof of all this, so it is not a problem to prove it. Unfortunately lawyers are so expensive and as far I know just going to court will cost 30k.
I am located in Ireland.
It's unfortunately time for you to lawyer up if you still feel like chasing your buyer; or give up if there's nothing to chase.
First off, the sums involved are too large for a small claims court, so rule that out.
Next, I wouldn't recommend going to court without a counsel if that possibility exists because great lawyers tend to win over procedure fails rather than over cases' merit. If you're not counseled while the opposite side is, you'll get out gunned by just about any lawyer on procedure and likely lose over problems of your own making (e.g. a missed deadline or incorrectly filing stuff).
Letting go should, frankly, be an option. As painful as it might be, if there are no assets to collect, or if you can't easily collect them, you may end up with a symbolic "win" and only chump change to show for it - along with an attorney's invoice for their trouble. Typically, this occurs if the defendant's assets don't cover (enough of) your losses or if those assets are unreachable in theory (retirement savings in some jurisdictions) or practice (e.g. in a developing country).
While lawyers are expensive, most of the ones I've interacted with extended a short, free consultation to sketch out what's at stake and give their gut feeling on whether it's worth pursuing or not. (The ones who charged something anyway were all corporate lawyers.) I'd be surprised if you can't find an attorney in your area who will extend 15-30 min to listen to your case for free.
There also are lawyers who specialize in getting damages and pay themselves if and only if the suit is successful. (Most infamously in the US, where class actions sometimes pay the law firm involved and hardly anyone else.)
If you do decide to move forward, your lawyer will more often than not try to avoid going to court if they can, because going to court is lengthy, expensive, and time consuming. The main benefit of bringing in a lawyer, in practice, is that the opposing party will receive a strongly worded letter and be forced into out-of-court settlement discussions - or end up in court if they refuse or make things drag on.
Last but not least, I would stress one nugget in your question and your prior question on the same topic: you write that you sold half of your company, but you haven't received your full payment for it, which means that your sale of the company is technically not finalized. It's still 100% yours until your partner pays you in full and fulfills their side of the agreement. With an attorney at your side, this likely leaves the door open to sue for damages over mismanagement, misuse of corporate assets, and other colorful things - all of them scary, when spelt out by a lawyer.
IANAL
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