Case: successful resolution of dispute in international arbitration VCCA (Staffing and Service Agreement)
- Client & Context
- Challenge
- Solution
- Result
- Team
- Insights & What Other Clients Should Know
- Contact a lawyer for further information
Client & Context
A UK-based company (the service provider) approached us for legal support regarding a dispute with a company based in the Netherlands (the customer) arising from a staffing and service agreement. The dispute amount was approximately EUR 200,000 plus damages and interest.
Under the agreement, the dispute was subject to the jurisdiction of English courts, with English law as the governing law.
Challenge
The client set the task of collecting the full amount of the debt from the customer (debtor), as well as damages and interest under the contract.
The particular difficulty in this dispute was the question of the jurisdiction of the English courts and, thus, the rationale of the whole process, since resolving disputes in the English courts required significant costs for local lawyers, as well as subsequent enforcement in Europe. This is an expensive and lengthy process.
Solution
Before the start of the dispute, we sent a pre-trial claim and an application for termination of the contract due to a repudiatory breach. That creates some space for negotiations.
As a result of the negotiations, we managed to conclude a separate arbitration agreement on the transfer of disputes to the VCCA arbitration (Vilnius), with the condition of resolving disputes remotely in an online format, on the ARBIS platform. This made it possible to bypass the clause on the jurisdiction of disputes in expensive English courts and save both time and money for the client.
However, the preliminary agreements reached out during the negotiations were not fulfilled by the customer, who did not return the debt.
Result
REVERA brought the claim in the VCCA arbitration.
As a result, the dispute was resolved in record time - only 2 months from the appointment of the arbitrator, and with minimal costs for legal representation. All client's claims were satisfied on 100% (including legal representation costs and the whole amount of damages).
This is a result of legal advocacy: we convinced the arbitrator that the claimant’s position was practically indisputable and straightforward and, thus, could be resolved quickly on paper, while the defendant's objections were weak and unconvincing.
Team
The REVERA Arbitration team (Kamal Tserakhau, Aliaksandr Struzhko) – our experts in international commercial arbitration.
Insights & What Other Clients Should Know
This case illustrates a key principle of effective dispute resolution: nothing is impossible. Even if your contract stipulates that all disputes will be heard in expensive English courts, you can always enter into an ad hoc arbitration agreement and significantly reduce both the time and cost.
The main task is to convince the other party of the rationality and benefit of such an approach. This is part of the negotiation process.
Author: Aliaksandr Struzhko.
If you face a dispute in international arbitration or you need a back-up in negotiations, entrust the legal job to REVERA.
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