Preliminary Meeting - Chapter 9 - Handbook on International Commercial Arbitration

Author(s):

Peter Ashford

Page Count:

4 pages

Media Description:

PDF from "Handbook on International Commercial Arbitration"

Published:

October, 2009

Jurisdictions:

Practice Areas:

Parties,

Author Detail:

Peter Ashford is Solicitor of the Supreme Court and a Partner at Cripps Harries Hall LLP and is Head of the firm's Commercial Peter Ashford is a Partner and Head of commercial dispute resolution in the leading United Kingdom Firm of Cripps Harries Hall LLP, Tunbridge Wells, United Kingdom. Mr. Ashford advises on a wide range of commercial disputes with a particular emphasis on substantial commercial contract disputes, especially those involving an international aspect, partnership and LLP disputes, professional issues for solicitors and professional negligence. He is particularly experienced in complex, high value claims and acts for many international clients. He handles disputes in court, arbitration, mediation and disputes without any formal process. Mr. Ashford received his training in London and qualified in 1986. He joined Cripps Harries Hall LLP in 1987 and became a partner in 1991.

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Description:

Originally from Handbook on International Commercial Arbitration

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The first preliminary meeting is a vital stage in the proper administration of the reference. It is often the first opportunity for members of the Arbitral Tribunal to meet face-to-face; for the parties to meet each other since the dispute took on its formal dispute resolution process started; for counsel and the parties to meet each other and the members of the Tribunal. The attendance of appropriate senior representatives of the parties at the preliminary meeting is a matter of some debate; some practitioners favour it and others not (those in the latter camp consider it avoids grandstanding by counsel), but the clearly preferable view is in favour of attendance. Whilst there is unlikely to be any resolution of issues at the meeting by the Tribunal—the purpose of the meeting being procedural rather than substantive—nevertheless, the attendance of senior representatives enables a better understanding by those representatives of the issues, time and cost of the process which may itself promote settlement.

An agenda of items to be raised at the first meeting will often be circulated by the Chairman. A sample of such an agenda is attached at Appendix 6.

By the very nature of international arbitration the parties and their counsel may be from different jurisdictions with quite different expectations of the process of resolving disputes by arbitration. Equally, the experience of the parties and their counsel may be very different; the seasoned campaigner may come up against the young rookie.

Some issues that may require specific mention, discussion, and resolution are discussed below. They all derive from potentially diametric views that the parties and their counsel may have to the approach that ought to be adopted and the issues raised are designed, so far as possible, to dispel potential misunderstandings.

The UNCITRAL Notes on Organizing Arbitral Proceedings are a useful source of guidance. Whilst they do not pretend to provide all the answers, they do pose most of the questions and a study of the Notes is a helpful reminder of the issues that can arise.