The Australian Branch of the Institute is currently developing a nationally-based, combined mediation/arbitration service. 

The Australian Branch will promote and manage the combined mediation-arbitration scheme, which it believes will expedite the resolution of disputes in a more cost-effective manner than is sometimes achieved by piecemeal processes.  The significant aspects of the scheme are:

• The parties will first have the opportunity to resolve their differences through mediation (a consensual process) with a mediator appointed by the Institute, which if successful will provide an agreed end to the dispute;
• If the mediation does not produce a complete agreement, then an arbitrator will be appointed by the Institute (this person, by agreement between the parties, may be the same one who conducted the mediation). The arbitrator will then adjudicate the matter and produce a final award;
• The Chartered Institute will maintain overall control of the process once an application has been received, appointing the mediator/arbitrator and monitoring the process to completion according to strict time frames.
  

The Institute plans to target small business owners/franchisees, along with lawyers acting in the corporate sector, promoting the availability of qualified dispute resolution practitioners skilled to assist in both mediation and arbitration in resolving commercial disputes.  It is anticipated that most disputes referred to this scheme would involve claims in the range A$10,000 to A$400,000.

This scheme is not being directed at consumer disputes since these in the main are already well catered for by State consumer protection laws and various government-funded tribunals.   Again, in some states there were sectors, such as the building and construction industry, which already had in place effective ADR arrangements tailored to their own specific circumstances.

It is stressed that the scheme is not being presented as "cut-rate justice", but parties should however be able to achieve savings both in time and in legal costs.  The major benefit for small business owners will lie in the certainty of having an experienced arbitrator available to make a final and binding decision when the parties were unable to reach agreement between themselves.

The rate charged by the mediator/arbitrator would be a mutually agreed hourly or daily fee that would be commercially sensible and not excessive.  The Institute would carry the responsibility for selecting a mediator/arbitrator appropriate for the dispute and managing the overall process, for which it would also derive a fee for its services.