Arbitration Victoria works with Victorian Courts to facilitate access to experienced arbitration practitioners so as to provide an alternative court-based litigation.
Our vision is:
To facilitate the use of commercial arbitration in Victoria by providing modern and flexible arbitration rules and qualified arbitrators to enable commercial disputes to be resolved
quickly, fairly, affordably and finally.
RESOLVING DISPUTES USING THE ARBITRATION VICTORIA RULES
Arbitration Victoria provides a mechanism for disputing parties to resolve their commercial disputes outside of the Court process quickly and affordably.
Arbitration Victoria and the County Court of Victoria have entered into a memorandum of understanding relating to the referral of arbitrations from the Court to Arbitration Victoria.
Arbitration Victoria is one of three arbitration bodies identified by the County Court of Victoria in its ‘Arbitration referral information sheet’ published on the Court’s website.
WHAT IS ARBITRATION?
Arbitration is a private and confidential alternative to litigation in Court that has been used for hundreds of years to resolve commercial disputes.
Instead of the dispute being heard and determined by a Judge, in Court, the dispute is heard and determined by an Arbitrator at a venue selected by the parties. The Arbitrator is chosen by the parties and the Arbitrator’s decision (the “Award”) is final and binding.
A dispute can be referred to arbitration under the Arbitration Victoria Rules in three ways:
- When a matter is already before the County Court of Victoria, the Court can make an order, with the parties’ consent, referring their dispute to arbitration;
- Parties to a written agreement can agree (in that agreement, or, separately, in writing) to refer future disputes that may arise to arbitration; or
- Once a dispute has arisen, the parties can agree in writing to refer their dispute to arbitration.
ARBITRATION VICTORIA’S PHILOSOPHY
Arbitration Victoria has designed a set of Rules that will give parties a cost-efficient, fair and speedy way of resolving disputes.
Under the Arbitration Victoria Rules, parties can expect to receive a final and binding decision (known as an ‘Award’) within 120 days of the arbitrator’s appointment. This compares very favourably with the timelines associated with litigation in the courts (where it is not unusual for the determination of cases and appeals to take longer than 12 months or more).
Importantly, under the Arbitration Victoria Rules, the fees of arbitrators are capped.
For a summary of the key features and advantages of the arbitration process under the Arbitration Victoria Rules:
For a detailed description of the arbitration process under the Arbitration Victoria Rules: