A single, known fee

At Verca, the fee for resolving your dispute is known before it begins. Parties pay one all inclusive fee, fixed at the outset, covering the arbitrator, the rules, the platform and, where a hearing is held, the venue and an official transcript. Nothing is billed by the hour. The value is certainty: you commit knowing the full fee for resolution, not an estimate that moves.

What the single fee covers

• The arbitrator. The fee of a senior arbitrator drawn from the Verca panel, nominated by the parties or appointed under the Rules. It is settled out of the funds deposited for the matter, so there is no hourly billing and no separate arbitrator account for you to manage.
• The rules and administration. The institution's full procedure and the active administration of your matter from referral to award, including the management of the timetable.
• Verca Case Accord. Secure role based access to the environment on which the matter is run, with case data residing on infrastructure in the South Africa region, including its Rule aligned workflow, documents, notes, reports, reminders and client viewing access. Each user sees only what their assigned role permits.
• Onboarding and support. A full onboarding service for each firm, setting up users, roles and access permissions, with user views separated within firms and corporate divisions, and comprehensive platform support throughout the matter.
• The venue. Where a hearing is held, the institution sources, books and pays for an appropriate venue in the location most convenient to the parties.
• The hearing on record. Where a hearing is held, an official transcript of the proceedings, provided to the parties.
• Virtual and hybrid hearings. Where the matter suits it, the facilitation of remote participation, included in the same fee.
• What sits outside the fee. Each party's own legal representation, any costs order the arbitrator makes between the parties, hearing days beyond those included in the track fee, a separate urgent application, which is a separate commencement, and an appeal where the parties opt in to one.

What cannot happen to your bill

The fee is fixed before the arbitration begins. You are not exposed to the things that make ordinary disputes unpredictable: hourly fees that rise with every exchange, separate venue and transcription accounts, the price of delay, or a final bill that bears no relation to the estimate. The figure confirmed to you at the outset holds for the matter as referred. Where a counterclaim of greater value is brought, the Rules allow Verca to reassess the fee and the track on the aggregate of the claim and the counterclaim, so that the price continues to match the work.

How the fee is set

Three things set the fee: the track you are on, the seniority of the arbitrator the matter needs, and whether you sit in person, virtually or on papers. A smaller matter takes a less senior arbitrator and costs less accordingly. We quote in writing before you commit to anything, and it holds for the matter as referred.

Why certainty is worth it

In ordinary litigation and in hourly rate arbitration, fees rise with every delay and every interlocutory step. That gives the other side an incentive to prolong matters. Under a fixed, all inclusive fee, there is no such incentive. The process is built to move, and the fee does not move with it.

Known before you commit

You will receive the all inclusive fee for your matter in writing before you commit to anything. There is no charge to make contact, and no obligation in receiving a fee.