Commercial Litigation & Arbitration in the Czech Republic

Why choose ARROWS as your Czech litigation counsel?

• We answer the commercial question, not just the legal one. For every dispute we quantify what it costs and what it can recover. Sometimes the right advice is hard negotiation instead of a claim – and we will say so, even when it earns us less.

• Local court experience, not textbook law. We litigate from first instance to the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court. We know how the specific Czech courts hearing your case actually decide – and that disputes are lost in early evidence gathering, not in closing argument.

• One team for the dispute and for its cause. Most commercial disputes come out of a contract, a corporate structure or a transaction. We have in-house corporate, real estate and IT teams, so we do not litigate without understanding how the problem arose.

• Part of ARROWS International. If your dispute runs across several jurisdictions, we coordinate proceedings in dozens of countries and secure recognition and enforcement abroad. You deal with one partner in Prague.

Contact us if:

• You have been sued in the Czech Republic: You need a fast, commercial assessment of your exposure and a defence strategy, not a general legal opinion.

• Your Czech joint-venture partner is pushing you out: Blocked general meetings, withheld information, or a squeeze-out at an undervalued price.

• A Czech customer or distributor is not paying: From the pre-action demand through asset tracing to enforcement.

• A Czech contractor failed to deliver: Defective works, delays, disputed variations or withheld retention on a Czech construction project.

• Your Czech subsidiary faces a damages claim: Or your appointed director is personally exposed for the subsidiary’s debts.

• You have a judgment but no money: We enforce foreign and Czech judgments and arbitral awards against assets located in the Czech Republic.

Strong track record and the trust of market leaders:

We handle commercial and court disputes for more than 2,000 clients. Our disputes team has over 18 specialists with fifteen years of practice, and our expertise is regularly confirmed by Legal 500 and by the Czech Law Firm of the Year award. Clients who rely on our representation include MONETA Money Bank, ARRIVA, ARDON and České dráhy, the Czech national railway operator.

Do not let a Czech dispute slow down your business or tie up your management. Book a no-obligation consultation in English, in which we will go through your position, the likely scenarios and a cost estimate.

A) Shareholder and corporate disputes

These disputes are not really about money – they are about control of the company, which is why they tend to be the hardest. They typically start when profit distribution stops being approved, or when one shareholder stops receiving information. Czech law gives both sides fairly powerful tools: a shareholder can be forced out of the company under certain conditions, and a general meeting resolution can be challenged. Timing is decisive, because most of these rights are tied to short deadlines after which nothing can be done.

• Minority shareholder protection: Blocked profit distribution, abuse of majority, self-serving amendments to the articles.

• Preventing and managing shareholder conflict: Deadlock between 50/50 shareholders, exit mechanics and the routes out of it.

• Exclusion of a shareholder and court-ordered termination of participation: We prepare the notice and the court application – or the defence against exclusion.

• Invalidity of general meeting resolutions: We challenge the resolution and monitor both the deadlines and the formal step without which the right to challenge lapses.

• Settlement share and its valuation: Disputes over the amount of the buy-out, including review expert appraisals.

B) Commercial and supply chain disputes

A dispute arising out of ordinary commercial cooperation can take the margin out of an entire contract. Three questions usually decide it: whether the other side genuinely breached the contract, how much of the contractual penalty can realistically be recovered, and what happens to performance already rendered. A Czech court can reduce an excessively high contractual penalty on the debtor’s application – and equally, a penalty can be successfully defended when it was set reasonably. We act for both sides of the relationship.

• Contracts with Czech partners: The clauses that decide the outcome long before the dispute starts.

• Termination and withdrawal under Czech law: Whether the termination was valid, and how performance already rendered is settled.

• Breach of supply and distribution agreements: Non-delivery, delay, defective performance, unilateral changes of terms.

• Contractual penalties: Enforcing the penalty and defending against it by applying for judicial reduction.

• Unpaid B2B receivables: Pre-action demand, asset security, order for payment, claim.

C) Construction and development disputes

Czech construction disputes have their own logic, their own experts and their own case law, which is why we run them as a separate practice together with our real estate team. They almost always turn on three questions: what exactly formed part of the agreed works, who carried the risk of change, and what the works actually built are worth. The party that has kept its documentation from day one usually wins.

• Czech construction contracts: How the contract allocates risk, and what that means once the dispute starts.

• Variations and changes to the scope of works: Claims the employer refuses to acknowledge, and how to prove them.

• Retention and withheld payments: How to secure their release, and when withholding is in fact justified.

• Defects and price reduction: Disputes over quality of workmanship and the scope of the contractor’s liability.

• Claims against designers and site supervision: Damage caused by an error in the design or in the supervision of the works.

D) Damages and director liability

This is where directors and board members are exposed in their own assets. Anyone accepting office in a Czech corporate body undertakes to act loyally, with the necessary knowledge and care – and if they cause the company loss and fail to compensate it, they may end up personally liable for the company’s debts. This matters in particular for directors appointed to Czech subsidiaries by a foreign parent. We act for companies pursuing claims and for directors defending them, never on both sides of the same dispute.

• Director liability for company debts: When personal liability actually arises, and how to defend against it.

• Who is liable when the company is fined: Allocation of liability between the company, its directors and its employees.

• Damages claims against directors and board members: Burden of proof, business judgement, quantification of loss.

• Limitation of damages claims: The most common reason a company never recovers the loss it suffered.

• Defence of a director: Including coordination with the D&O liability insurer.

E) Czech court proceedings, interim measures and enforcement

We take full responsibility for proceedings before Czech courts from start to finish. The most valuable phase is the very first one: before the other side reacts, an application for an interim measure can secure assets or evidence. The court decides on such an application without delay, but in disputes between businesses a security deposit must be paid on the day of filing – without it the court will reject the application. This is why we respond to these matters within 24 hours.

• Enforcement against Czech assets: Enforcing Czech and foreign judgments and arbitral awards.

• Czech insolvency proceedings: Filing and defending claims, avoidance actions, defence against abusive petitions.

• Representation at every instance: From the court of first instance to the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court.

• Interim measures: Securing assets and evidence before the claim is even filed.

• Appeals and extraordinary remedies: Including taking over proceedings from previous counsel after an adverse judgment.

F) Arbitration and cross-border enforcement

Not every dispute is worth taking all the way to judgment. For high-value contracts, arbitration is usually faster, single-instance and confidential – but you pay more upfront, and a bad award can effectively no longer be changed. We will assess what suits your particular matter, and for new contracts we draft the arbitration clause so that it helps you in a future dispute rather than working against you.

• Arbitration or court proceedings: Which route is commercially better for your contract, and why.

• Representation in arbitration: Before the Arbitration Court attached to the Czech Chamber of Commerce, and in international arbitration under ICC and VIAC rules.

• Recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments and awards in the Czech Republic: Including under EU instruments and the New York Convention.

• Settlement and mediation: Including the calculation of when a settlement is worth more to you than winning in court.

The route to a winning judgment (our process)

No theoretical memoranda. We work in clear steps, focused on the outcome being money in your account rather than merely a favourable judgment.

• Assessment within 24 hours: We tell you your position, what is at stake and which deadlines are already running.

• Quantification and decision: Cost estimate, expected duration and prospects of success. On that basis you decide whether to sue, defend or negotiate.

• Securing your position: Interim measure, preservation of evidence, approach to the other side. This is where disputes are most often won and lost.

• Running the case and supervising performance: We draft submissions so that both your management and the judge can follow them, and we make sure payment actually arrives.

Our team combines litigation practice with corporate, construction and IT law – so we do not treat a dispute merely as a procedural exercise, but as a situation with a commercial cause and a commercial solution.