Small Claims Arbitration: a Study on Time and Expenses of the Proceeding

Abstract

Settlements of disputes through institutional arbitration are often chosen by the disputing parties, at present there are several institutes for examples the TAI of the office of the judiciary and the arbitration institute of the Thai Chamber of Commerce. Practically every institute dose apply similar certain major principle namely speediness, low cost and yielding fairness to the disputing parties. However the nature of disputes tends to vary, should the case involve a small sum, to apply the general rules of the institute to it may not help reaching those principles. This article emphasizes the ways to handle small claim arbitration to broaden the vision and practice of small claim arbitration.

This article deals with small claim arbitration of other countries and it reveals that the application of general rules to small claims tends to cause tardiness and disproportionate high cost. To resolve these problems, foreign arbitration institutes create special rules for small claims in particular. This is done in order to protect the benefit of the disputants and to promote institutional arbitration to gain popularity.

This article sheds light for the arbitration institute to issue new rules for small claim to accommodate the two major principle of arbitration namely to be time efficient by requiring sole arbitrator to handle the proceeding, emphasizing the reliance on documents and providing specific time limit for each step under a cap for the total time to be used for the proceeding and to be cost efficient by requiring that the cost must corresponding with claimed amount through the fixed arbitrator fee. In sum, once the proceeding is concise and precise the size of the cost is under control and the unnecessary expenses would be a matter of the past.