For respondents
Here is what it means, what your options are, and how to respond. Take a breath; this page walks you through it.
What the notice means
A notice of arbitration means another party (the claimant) has filed a formal claim against you and chosen to resolve it through arbitration rather than court. Arbitration is a private, binding process: both sides present their account and their evidence, and a neutral arbitrator, not the claimant and not us, decides the outcome.
Receiving a notice is not a judgment against you. Nothing has been decided yet. The notice exists so that you know about the case, can read exactly what is being claimed, and have a fair chance to respond before anyone decides anything.
If arbitration is new to you, our plain-English overview, What is arbitration?, explains how the process works from start to finish.
Your options
You are not locked into one path. You can respond, build your case, and still settle at any point along the way.
Your notice includes instructions for accessing the case portal. There you can read the full claim, see every document filed so far, and submit your Statement of Response. No account fees, no software to install.
You can upload documents, photos, receipts, correspondence, or anything else that supports your account of what happened. The arbitrator reviews the complete record from both parties before deciding anything.
At any point during the proceeding, you and the claimant can resolve the matter between yourselves. If you settle, the case ends there. Many matters resolve this way before an arbitrator ever decides them.
The response window
The response window runs 14 days from the date you were served with the notice. Within that window you can file your Statement of Response, submit evidence, or reach out to the claimant to settle. The exact dates for your case are shown in the case portal, so you never have to guess where you stand.
Fourteen days is enough time to gather your documents and tell your side clearly, and the portal is built so that you can do it yourself, without hiring anyone.
If you do nothing
Ignoring the notice does not make the case go away. If the response window closes without a response, the arbitrator can proceed on the record as presented, which means deciding the case based on the claimant's evidence alone, and an award may be entered against you.
Non-participation is not an automatic loss: the claimant still has to prove the claim. But an arbitrator who never hears your side cannot weigh it. Responding, even briefly, is almost always better than silence.
The governing rules
Every case on this forum is governed by our published Rules of Arbitration, which set out each step of the process, from service of notice through the final award. You can read them in full at arbitration.inc/rules.
Questions about your notice or trouble accessing the case portal? Write to us at hello@arbitration.inc and we will point you in the right direction.
This page is general information, not legal advice.