One of the quieter inefficiencies in dispute resolution is that very different disputes are often forced through the same process. A straightforward debt claim and a multi party construction dispute with competing experts do not need the same procedure, yet in much litigation they receive something close to it. The result is that simple matters are over engineered and slow, while complex matters are squeezed into a frame that does not fit them.
An institution with separate procedures addresses this by matching the procedure to the dispute at the outset. A matter that is urgent and self contained follows a fast, compressed process. A matter that needs interim protection while a larger dispute is resolved follows a procedure designed for exactly that. A straightforward commercial claim follows a streamlined procedure; a substantial or technically intricate dispute follows a fuller one with the latitude it genuinely needs. The procedure is fitted to the matter, not the matter to the procedure.
The choice of procedure is therefore the first decision that shapes the cost and the timetable of a dispute. It is not a technicality.
It determines how many steps the matter will involve, how long it will take, and what it will cost. Getting it right at the start avoids both the waste of over procedure and the unfairness of under procedure, and it allows the parties to see, before they commit, the shape of the road ahead.
Specialist fields add a further dimension. A banking recovery, a construction dispute and a corporate or insolvency matter each carry their own conventions and their own kinds of evidence. Matching not only the procedure but the expertise of the arbitrator to the subject matter is part of fitting the process to the dispute, so that the person deciding the matter understands the field it arises in.
At Verca there are two procedures: the Expedited procedure for claims up to R5 million, and the Complex procedure for larger or more complex claims. There is also urgent relief, and an appeal where the parties agree to one. Once the other side's time to oppose has ended, we tell the parties which procedure applies, and a matter may later move to the other procedure.