1. INTRODUCTION

These provisions shall be known as the LMAA Small Claims Procedure 2006 effective 1st January 2006. They shall apply to any dispute which parties have agreed should be referred to arbitration under this Procedure. If any such agreement refers to a monetary limit for disputes that may be so referred, such limit shall be deemed to exclude interest and costs unless the parties agree otherwise.


2. APPOINTMENT OF ARBITRATOR

(a) If a dispute has arisen and the parties have agreed that it should be referred to arbitration under the Small Claims Procedure, then, unless a sole arbitrator has already been agreed on, either party may give notice to the other requiring him to join in appointing a sole arbitrator. If within fourteen days the parties have agreed on a sole arbitrator and the intended arbitrator has agreed to act, the Claimant shall within a further fourteen days send to the Respondent (with copies to the arbitrator) a letter of claim accompanied by copies of all relevant documents including experts’ reports and shall also send to the arbitrator a remittance in his favour for the Small Claims fee as defined in para 3(b).

(b) If the parties have not within fourteen days agreed on a sole arbitrator, either party may apply in writing to the Honorary Secretary, London Maritime Arbitrators Association for the appointment of a sole arbitrator by the President. Such application shall be copied to the other party and shall be accompanied by a copy of the letter of claim together with copies of all said relevant documents and a remittance for the said Small Claims fee (Fees) plus £(Fees) , plus VAT where applicable, in favour of the LMAA. Where appropriate a party applying to the President should provide a concise explanation of the issues which are likely to arise and an indication as to whether any particular expertise on the part of the arbitrator is required. The President, having considered the nature of the dispute shall appoint an appropriate arbitrator and shall give notice to the parties. The LMAA. shall send to the arbitrator the letter of claim and the documents together with the said Small Claims fee, and shall retain the balance in respect of administrative expenses.


3. THE ARBITRATOR'S FEE

(a) The Small Claims fee includes the appointment fee, interlocutories, a hearing not exceeding one day (if required by the arbitrator pursuant to para 5 (g)), the writing of the Award and the assessment of costs (if any). It does not include expenses, such as the hire of an arbitration room, which shall in the first instance be paid by the Claimant on demand. However if there is any challenge to jurisdiction which, or which it is suggested falls to the arbitrator to resolve, the arbitrator shall be entitled to charge on a reasonably appropriate basis for such work, his additional fees being payable in the first instance by the Claimant before he makes any award, ultimate liability for such additional fees being for the arbitrator to resolve.

(b) The Small Claims fee shall be such standard fee as shall be fixed from time to time by the Committee of the LMAA*: VAT shall be payable where applicable. For all purposes, including time limits, payment of the Small Claims fee within 14 days of agreement being reached upon a sole arbitrator under paragraph 2(a) shall be a condition precedent to the valid commencement of proceedings under the Small Claims Procedure.

(c) In the event of the Respondent putting forward a counterclaim which exceeds the amount of the claim an additional fixed fee in such amount (plus VAT where applicable), as shall be fixed from time to time by the Committee of the LMAA (Fees) *, is payable by the Respondent. Payment of such fee within fourteen days of service of defence and counterclaim submissions shall, for all purposes including time limits, be a condition precedent to the Respondent’s entitlement to bring any such counterclaim within the proceedings in question.

(d) If the case is settled amicably before an award has been written, the arbitrator may retain out of the Small Claims fee a sum sufficient to compensate him for services thus far rendered and any balance shall be repaid.

* The current sums, as fixed by the LMAA Committee, may be found on the LMAA website at www.lmaa.org.uk/notes-on-fees.aspx.

4. RIGHT OF APPEAL EXCLUDED

The right of appeal to the Courts is excluded under this procedure. By adopting the Small Claims Procedure the parties shall be deemed to have agreed to waive all rights of appeal. For the avoidance of doubt, this provision does not apply to any ruling by an arbitrator on his own jurisdiction.


5. PROCEDURE

a) A letter of defence and details of counterclaim (if any) accompanied in each case by copies of all relevant documents including any experts’ reports shall be delivered by the Respondent to the Claimant within twenty-eight days from receipt of the letter of claim or from the date of the appointment of the arbitrator, whichever shall be the later.

(b) A letter of reply and defence to counterclaim (if any) shall be delivered by the Claimant to the Respondent within a further twenty-one days. Where an additional fee is payable under paragraph 3(c) hereof in respect of the counterclaim, the twenty-one days shall run only from receipt by the arbitrator of the additional fee. The arbitrator shall be entitled to refuse to admit evidence submitted at the stage of reply and defence to counterclaim (if any) if it should properly have been served with the letter of claim.

(c) The Respondent shall, if he so wishes, deliver to the Claimant a letter of reply to defence to any counterclaim within a further fourteen days.

(d) Any extension to the above time limits (including that for the service of a letter of claim set out in paragraph 2(a) above) must be applied for before expiry of the existing time limit. If a party fails to serve its pleading within the time limit set, the arbitrator, on the application of the other party or of his own motion, will notify the defaulting party that unless the outstanding communication is received within a fixed period (maximum 14 days) he will proceed to the award on the basis of the submissions and documents before him to the exclusion of all others. (In the case of failure to serve a letter of claim the arbitrator shall make an award dismissing the claim.) The time allowed by the arbitrator’s notice, added to any extension of time previously agreed between the parties in respect of the same pleading, shall not in total exceed 28 days. Any pleading submitted by the defaulting party subsequent to expiry of the time limit set by the arbitrator’s notice shall not be admissible.

(e) Following the service of the letter of reply, or, where there is a counterclaim, following service of the letter of reply to defence to counterclaim, the arbitrator may declare to the parties that pleadings have closed. No further pleadings shall be considered by the arbitrator following such a declaration.

(f) Copies of all the above letters and documents shall be sent to the arbitrator and to the other party, or if the other party is acting through a solicitor or representative, to that solicitor or representative.

(g) There shall be no hearing unless, in exceptional circumstances, the arbitrator requires this.

(h) In the case of an oral hearing the arbitrator shall have power to allocate the time available (which shall be limited to one working day) between the parties in such manner that each party has an equal opportunity in which to present his case.

(i) All communications or notifications under this procedure may be by letter, telex, telefax or e-mail.


6. DISCLOSURE OF DOCUMENTS

(a) There shall be no disclosure, but if in the opinion of the arbitrator a party has failed to produce any relevant document(s), he may order the production of such document(s) and may indicate to the party to whom the order is directed that, if without adequate explanation that party fails to produce the document(s), he may proceed on the assumption that the contents of such document(s) do not favour that party’s case.

(b) The expression “relevant documents” includes all documents relevant to the dispute, whether or not favourable to the party holding them. It includes witness statements, experts’ reports and the like on which a party intends to rely, but does not include documents which are not legally disclosable.


7. THE AWARD

The arbitrator will make every effort to publish the award within one month, in a documentsonly case, from the date when he has received all relevant documents and submissions, or, where there is an oral hearing, from the close of the hearing.


8. COSTS

The arbitrator shall assess and award costs on a commercial basis having regard to the nature of the reference. Unless the parties otherwise agree, the amount which one party may be ordered to pay to the other in respect of legal costs (including disbursements) shall be assessed at a sum in the arbitrator’s absolute discretion up to such maximum figure as shall be fixed and published from time to time by the Committee of the LMAA*. Where there is a counterclaim in respect of which an additional fixed fee is payable to the arbitrator pursuant to para (c) hereof, this amount (after striking any necessary balance between costs orders where there is more than one) shall not exceed such other maximum figure as shall be fixed and published from time to time by the Committee of the LMAA*. No breakdowns of such costs are to be provided unless the parties agree otherwise or the arbitrator so requires, in which event they must be provided within 7 days of the service of the last pleading as in para 5(e) above or the arbitrator’s direction, whichever is later. The successful party will normally be awarded the Small Claims fee (Fees) (including the fee of £(Fees) payable to the LMAA. in cases where the President is requested to appoint an arbitrator) in addition to any legal costs which he has incurred (subject to the limits mentioned above), provided always that any award of costs shall be in the sole discretion of the arbitrator.

9. GENERAL

The arbitrator may in any case which, in his discretion, he considers exceptional depart from or vary the above provisions as he considers appropriate, save that he shall not be entitled to vary the maximum figure which can be awarded under the Small Claims Procedure in respect of legal costs unless the parties agree otherwise.

In any case where it is determined or agreed, because of the nature and/or weight of a case, that the Small Claims Procedure is inappropriate and shall not be applicable, it shall cease to apply in its entirety.

* The current sums, as fixed by the LMAA Committee, may be found on the LMAA website at www.lmaa.org.uk/notes-on-fees.aspx.