CRCICA Mediation Costs

CRCICA offers cost-efficient mediation costs compared to most mediation institutions.

CRCICA is one of the few, if not the only, institution that does not charge registration fees to initiate mediation.

The term “Costs” under CRCICA Mediation Rules (the Rules) includes four categories, which are CRCICA’s administrative fees, the mediator’s fees, expenses incurred by the mediator; fees/expenses of the appointing authority if other than CRCICA (article 14, paragraph 1 of the Rules)

The administrative fees are reasonable and range between USD 500 and USD 3000 save for exceptional cases. (article 15 of the Rules)

To ensure predictability, the mediator’s fees are calculated on hourly basis based on the reasonable time spent on the case, and range between USD 100 and USD 300 save for exceptional cases. (article 16 of the Rules)

Costs are equally borne between the parties unless agreed otherwise (article 17, paragraph 2 of the Rules)

Costs can be paid by cash; certified check in CRCICA’s name and delivered to its address; wire transfer indicating the case number with no charges to CRCICA (article 14, paragraph 3 of the Rules)

CRCICA will request the deposit of an advance on the Costs upon commencement of the mediation and may request subsequently the payment of supplementary deposits. Upon termination of the mediation, CRCICA will render an accounting to the parties of deposits received and shall return the balance if any to the parties. (article 17, paragraph 1 of the Rules)

CRCICA can request the mediator to suspend or terminate the process if the required payments are not made timely. (article 17, paragraph 3 of the Rules)

Parties can control the costs in mediation if they so desire by setting a budget with the Mediator and CRCICA for the maximum number of hours they desire to spend on the case. For example, the parties can agree that the maximum they will spend on mediation is USD 3500. This means they need to discuss with the Centre and the mediator how many hours of mediation will the said set amount cover and the expected administrative cost. If the budget limit is reached without reaching a solution, the parties will then make a decision whether to terminate or continue the process with a revised budget. Many times, the parties would spend as little extra as USD 1000 to settle a multi-million dollars dispute.