Minority shareholders often face issues related to oppression or violation of minority rights. Competent commercial lawyers can help you resolve problems and assert your lawful rights in the company. In any business or company, the directors, officers and majority shareholders have a duty to work for the best interests of all shareholders (a minority shareholder is an individual who owns less than 50% stock in a company). An important component of this duty is to ensure that minority shareholder rights are not violated. For example, employees of a company who are also minority shareholders can be terminated from employment (just like other employees). However, in the absence of a shareholder agreement, the matter is usually debated in court and may take a longer time to resolve.
The court will then examine the circumstances and balance the duties of the majority shareholders against the claim of the minority shareholders. The process is not only complex, time consuming and tedious but also involves steep legal costs. Minority shareholders typically face a set of common problems which include but are not restricted to:
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