11 May The Barcelona Arbitration Court (Tribunal Arbitral de Barcelona – TAB) has launched an urgency procedure to respond to the present crisis. The proceeding might be filed even when arbitral clause has not been agreed in advance.
Given the pandemic caused by virus COVID-19 and the lock down measures taken by the Spanish Government, the Spanish Courts might experience a massive workload once regular business activities reopen. Upon this situation, the Barcelona Arbitration Court has launched a proceeding named fast track which intends to ease this situation.
The key points of this proceeding are:
1. It brings the possibility to submit disputes to arbitration even when the parties have not previously agreed on an arbitration clause. As it is well known, one of the main traits of arbitration is that alternative dispute resolution mechanism needs to be agreed before the dispute arises. Now, and in accordance to the basics of arbitration, which is the parties’ agreement, the Barcelona Arbitration Court opens a new proceeding which -under those basics -allows disputes to be submitted to arbitration.
2. It is a responsive proceeding, which can be filed online, and that it might take about 60 days upon its start to be concluded.
The arbitration award in accordance to the Spanish Arbitration Act 11/2011 is executable and binding to the parties.
This proceeding is an advantage since it offers celerity to solve disputes; it gathers all legal guarantees under our laws -the arbitration award has res judicata effect, and the Barcelona Arbitration Court counts with high reputable arbitrators to arbitrate cases.
In sum, and although arbitration costs might be a bit higher compared to Court fees, the Barcelona Arbitration Court fast track proceeding can be a great solution at our present times.
If you have any doubts or queries about arbitration procedures, you can contact us at info@matp.es
