The View | Lawyers won’t like it, but the new arbitration centre is a boon for business and consumers

Some of my best friends are lawyers (this sounds like a stretch but it happens to be true) nevertheless I am inclined to think that they have quite enough litigation business. That’s why I was pleasantly surprised to see the toothless Consumer Council finally coming up with a plan for an arbitration centre to resolve small-scale disputes between businesses and their customers.

It is well known that many customers, and smaller businesses for that matter, are unable to seek legal redress because the cost and time involved of so doing is prohibitive. This is why when you hear the words, “go sue me”, you can be pretty sure they come from someone with more money than you, confident that they have the deep pockets to see off any litigation attempt regardless of merit.

The Council says that some 25 per cent of consumer complaints are unresolved each year, often because of fears over the high costs of litigation relative to the modest sums in dispute. An arbitration centre offers the prospect of speedier and far less costly settlements.

As it happens such a centre already exists but it deals with much bigger cases. The Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre was established in 1985 and is part of a global network of similar centres that focus on disputes between large companies operating on a cross-border scale. Although it initially gained government support it is now sufficiently successful to be self funding.

The Consumer Council’s proposal is far more modest but there is no reason why it could not be equally successful.

Given the many advantages of this proposed arbitration scheme I was, lamentably, not surprised to see the reflex negative response of some business organisations. As a business owner with a fair number of customers I guess that these fine upstanding folk were speaking on my behalf. However my opinion was not sought, nor, I guess, was it sought from others in my situation.