The Chairman-Designate of the International Law Association (ILA) Arbitration Committee, Mr. Tolulope Aderemi, has decried the prohibitive cost of arbitration and urged his colleagues to ingeniously review the cost of accessing justice through alternative methods to litigation- arbitration, etc.
Aderemi aired these views during panel sessions at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Commission on Arbitration and the just-concluded International Bar Association conferences, both held in the United States of America.
According to Aderemi, the pandemic’s consequences are such that parties in arbitration are increasingly concerned about the cost of prosecuting or defending their cases before arbitration tribunals. He stressed further that this is increasingly limiting access to justice and arbitration practitioners must now pay closer attention to this.
In his view, Nigeria must aggressively consider embracing 3rd party funding of parties and urged the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to give his assent to the amendment to the Nigerian Arbitration and Mediation Bill, a Bill which provides for third-party funding amongst other initiatives. Aderemi’s view is that in addition to embracing third-party financing as an alternative to funding arbitration, parties may also consider arbitration insurance as an alternative method of parties funding arbitration. This, according to Aderemi must be infused into the arbitration contract at the negotiation time. This will be a second-level improvement to dispute avoidance which companies must now embrace.Arbitration Practitioners must consider alternatives to the prohibitive cost of arbitration- Tolu Aderemi
The Chairman-Designate of the International Law Association (ILA) Arbitration Committee, Mr. Tolulope Aderemi, has decried the prohibitive cost of arbitration and urged his colleagues to ingeniously review the cost of accessing justice through alternative methods to litigation- arbitration, etc.
Aderemi aired these views during panel sessions at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Commission on Arbitration and the just-concluded International Bar Association, both held in the United States of America.
According to Aderemi, the pandemic’s consequences are such that parties in arbitration are increasingly concerned about the cost of prosecuting or defending their cases before arbitration tribunals. He stressed further that this is increasingly limiting access to justice because of charge, and arbitration practitioners must now pay closer attention to this.
In his view, Nigeria must aggressively consider embracing 3rd party funding of parties and urged the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to give his assent to the amendment to the Nigerian Arbitration and Mediation Bill, a Bill which provides for third-party funding. Aderemi’s view is that in addition to embracing third-party financing as an alternative to finding arbitration, parties may also consider arbitration insurance. This, according to Aderemi must be infused into the arbitration contract at the negotiation time. This will be a second-level improvement to dispute avoidance which companies must now embrace.
The arbitration expert encouraged arbitrators to remain sensitive to current economic realities when discussing Arbitrator fees so that Users/Clients of the process will not view the mechanism. as a money-making venture, which it is not.
Arbitration is an alternative dispute resolution for commercial matters. It encourages party autonomy by allowing the parties to determine the resolution of their dispute, including the appointment of 3rd party neutrals, experts, duration of the hearing, seat and place of arbitration, etc. It is an alternative to traditional litigation, which sometimes outlive the parties in the Nigerian courts.