SCC Express – designed to fill a gap in the dispute resolution spectrum
SCC Express is a new dispute resolution tool designed to help business partners resolve disagreements on issues that need to be dealt with quickly, or where there is a wish to avoid a full-length arbitration or court proceeding. SCC Express is a quick and efficient way to get a neutral legal assessment of the matter in dispute – enabling the parties to move on faster.
Published 2021-05-26
Disputes come in all shapes and sizes. Some disputes can be resolved without going through a full-length arbitration, or a court proceeding, and an enforceable award may not be necessary. Today, the SCC Arbitration Institute (SCC) introduces the SCC Rules for Express Dispute Assessment – SCC Express – in response to the business community’s need for speed and cost efficiency in dispute resolution.
"Our mission at the SCC is to promote business and international trade. We do this by making sure companies spend as little time as possible in commercial disputes, and as much as possible trading", says Lise Alm, Head of Business Development at the SCC.
"Our main tool for this over the last 100 years has been arbitration, which is the perfect mechanism for many types of disputes. But some disputes require a faster, more nimble solution, with less bells and whistles. We want to make sure we can offer the right tools for all types of disputes – big or small, complex or not, with litigious or solution-oriented parties."
SCC Express is a consent-based and confidential process designed to give parties a legal assessment of their dispute in three weeks, for a fixed fee. It may be appropriate in situations where, for example, parties to a long-term contract need to resolve a deadlock to resume their cooperation. SCC Express gives the parties an idea of how an arbitrator would view or decide their dispute, which may help them reach settlement or decide which issues to focus on in an ensuing arbitration.
"Dispute resolution today is influenced by strategic and financial considerations, much like other business transactions, and predictability of time and costs is becoming increasingly important", explains SCC’s Acting Secretary General Kristin Campbell-Wilson.
"In recent years, our users have voiced an interest in something other than the existing procedures. These signals led us to create a task force of experienced practitioners and arbitrators for the purpose of developing a new dispute resolution tool – SCC Express. I believe it will be a very useful mechanism for parties who favour predictability of time and costs and a streamlined procedure, and I look forward to seeing it used in practice."