Resorting to the Courts when a conflict arises between two or more parties, is still the preferred route for dispute resolution in Cyprus. Parties continue to easily submit themselves to the powers afforded to a judge by our laws and feel more comfortable to pursue a case in front of a competent court and a judge, who has the legal expertise to decide a claim.
There are, however, in Cyprus alternative, as well as very popular forums for dispute resolution, which are proven to be more suitable to determine disputes between parties. Especially in commerce, conflict resolution is available through a variety of alternative forums, arbitration being the obvious one but also mediation and construction adjudication.
Cyprus has a strong tradition of referring construction disputes to Arbitration. It is deemed to offer speed, privacy, confidentiality, flexibility and autonomy and affords direct enforceability of the decision, both nationally and internationally. Arbitration provides the parties with the initiative and freedom to choose, among others, the suitable arbitrator, the number of the arbitrators involved, the place and language of the proceedings, the applicable law and the arbitration rules.
Controversial cases and difficult disputes, which require a high degree of technical knowledge, skills and expertise have often been resolved, through arbitration.
What this process has allowed is for a pool of experts to have developed who have the requisite experience to handle complex disputes which for whatever reason are required to be referred to arbitration. Certainly amongst our firm the expertise gained over the years in construction arbitration has allowed us to develop a strong international commercial arbitration practice able to handle any number of disputes, be it shareholder's disputes, credit recovery, finance and investment disputes.
Our Firm has also gained expertise in all ancillary matters which are still referred to court which involved the almost inevitable these days discovery & disclosure orders, freezing and gagging orders and generally any process where the assistance of the Courts is sought to ensure arbitrations proceed elsewhere.
Where no binding arbitration clause exists, before reaching the conclusion that arbitration is the best method to resolve a dispute, each case should be seen and examined based on its particular facts and circumstances.
May 2017
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