Litigation Notes: Arbitration in Quarantine

Success story

We successfully defended a client’s interests - a large manufacturer of mining equipment - in a debt collection case at the Arbitration Center of the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs of the Republic of Kazakhstan "Atameken" (the claim amount is more than $ 200 thousand).

The practical interest for us was that the case was considered online. This was our first arbitration case in such format, so both the client and we had many questions and concerns about the entire process.

Fortunately, most of the technical issues were resolved promptly and at a high professional level by the Arbitration center, whose employees and arbitrators were on the "remote".

It was also surprisingly quick and easy to get a decision on security measures in the Specialized Inter-district Economic Court of Nur-Sultan and to impose interim measures in the regions, despite the strict quarantine measures.

Sad  story

Another recent case is the consequences of an incorrect arbitration clause. Due to negligence or inattention, the contract includes an arbitration clause that does not identify a specific arbitration court. Of course, the debtor refuses to change the contract or enter into a new arbitration agreement; the arbitrators warned that the issue of their competences would not be resolved in the claimant's  favor.

The situation is aggravated by the fact that the claimant is a resident of a country that is not a party to the European Convention on Foreign Trade Arbitration. Therefore, the mechanisms for the appointing arbitration provided for by this international agreement are not available to the claimant.

As a possible solution, it was decided to appeal to the court to declare the arbitration clause invalid and further appeal to the court of common jurisdiction to recover the debt.