When it comes to initiating SIAC Arbitration, most claimants ask a common question that what will be the SIAC arbitration costs.

Have a look at the main costs in SIAC Arbitration:

1. Fees and costs of the arbitral tribunal and the arbitration centre
2. Fees and costs of experts
3. Legal fees and costs of the lawyers
4. Party costs related to internal expenses of the parties, including the costs of the hearing venue and the expenses of witnesses.

According to the SIAC Arbitration Rules, the cost of arbitration is related to (a) the Tribunal’s fees and expenses, (b) SIAC’s administration fees and expenses and (c) the costs of any expert appointed by the Tribunal and of any other assistance reasonably required by the Tribunal.

After depositing the arbitral tribunal’s fees and SIAC’s fees, the parties have to make the initial payment. Both parties are requested to pay 50% of the deposit. However, the SIAC Registrar has the power to fix separate deposits on costs for claims and counterclaims, respectively, which is useful when claims have a very different value.

SIAC Arbitration Costs by Third-Party Funders

According to the SIAC Investment Arbitration Rules (effective as of 1 January 2017), the arbitral tribunal has the power to order disclosure of the existence of a funding arrangement entered into by one of the parties to the proceedings, the identity of the third-party funder involved and further details on the third-party funder’s involvement and interest in the outcome of the case.

SIAC administrative fees

In accordance with the Administrative Fees Schedule, SIAC administrative fees are calculated based on the amount in dispute. For instance, for arbitration with an amount in dispute of USD 1,000,000, administrative fees will be approximately USD 12,500.

Do you know, the biggest share of all costs related to arbitration tends to consist of SIAC arbitration lawyer’s legal fees? Yes, you read it right. To get an idea of the legal fees and expected expert fees, you can use a full SIAC Cost Calculator. It will allow parties to know about the complexity of the case and the fees that are negotiated.

In the absence of an agreement between the parties, the arbitral tribunal determines in the Award the apportionment of the costs of the arbitration among the parties. The parties may agree on how the arbitration costs should be apportioned, however, in practice this rarely occurs.

The SIAC arbitration rules are silent as to how arbitration costs should be allocated. In the absence of any rule allocation, commonly it is considered that the law of the seat of arbitration applies to the arbitral tribunal’s award of costs (ICC Cost Report).

To learn more about this topic, please do not hesitate to contact Aceris Law LLC’s arbitration lawyers or visit https://www.acerislaw.com/.