Legal Question in Criminal Law in Minnesota

First and Foremost, you are not going to be able to gain nearly enough advice through this forum to properly defend yourself, your partner, or your corporation. Second, it does appear that you have a firm grasp of the situation based on your question. Generally, there are two main areas of law (i.e. criminal and civil). You stated, �[my] partner has a criminal lawsuit filed against him for theft...� A criminal complaint is filed by a prosecuting authority, like a county attorney. It is not filed by a business or a person. A person would report someone�s alleged criminal activities to the police, after an investigation the police may turn the information over to the prosecuting attorney, the prosecuting attorney would then decide whether press charges (file a criminal complaint). No contractual provision can prohibit a person from making a police report. A business or person can, however, file a civil complaint against someone. A prosecuting attorney would not be involved in this civil matter. A contractual provision may provide for mediation, or more likely arbitration. Whether or not conciliation court is appropriate is based on the amount at issue and not whether the parties agreed to it. Your partner needs to defend himself against the charges, it is not as easy as filing for a dismissal. You, your partner and your corporation need to defend yourselves in the civil lawsuit if one has been filed. You may be able to enforce the mediation clause. In fact mediation is strongly encouraged by the courts. I do not know how much money is at issue, but it seems your partner is probably facing felony charges. You need to find the cash for an attorney.