e-Court Escrow Fees

The escrow relates to a prepaid fee equal to lawyer/counsel appeal fees and is payable by both parties.

Enforcement of a decision by the e-Court arbitrator can be encouraged in all provinces outside the province of Quebec by awarding the "winning" party, the 'loosing' party's prepaid portion of the escrow amount. This applies only when the 'loosing' party, whilst firstly agreeing to abide by the e-Court litigation process does not honor the judgement of the e-Court arbitrator either with regards the standard or appeal procedures, making enforcing not possible. Moreover, the prepaid escrow portion by the "winning" party, will be returned to the 'winning' party at the same time of the e-Court decision with regards the standard or appeal procedures. The escrow money received by the 'winning' party will be used to pay for council costs incurred by the "winning" party to litigate in e-court and/or a traditional government courts. In the unlikely event that there exist a claim and counter claim between parties and enforcing the decision by an e-Court arbitrator is not possible then the prepaid escrow amounts will be used to pay for council fees of both parties to litigate in a traditional government court.

Enforcement of a decision by the e-Court arbitrator with respect to a defendant residing in Quebec can be legally enforced through a specially designed notarial deed based on the Quebec civil code.

In 1986, Canada signed the United Nations Convention on the Reciprocal Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, which had been adopted by the United Nations conference on international commercial arbitration in New York on June 10, 1958. This convention is commonly referred to as the New York Convention“. The federal government then passed the United Nations Foreign Arbitral Awards Convention Act making the Convention part of the law of Canada. In essence, the New York Convention sets out a code for the recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards made in other countries. Each province followed suit and passed legislation adopting the New York Convention as part of provincial law.

In addition to the New York Convention, the United Nations commission on international trade law, (UNCITRAL) developed a model law for international commercial arbitration. This Model Law was then adopted by the Canadian federal government and all the provinces as a law that is to govern international commercial arbitrations that take place within their respective jurisdictions. While the Model Law was designed for international commercial arbitration, it was also used to form the basis for new domestic arbitration legislation in many provinces. We therefore have in Canada a uniform law for international commercial arbitration across all provinces and a range of provincial legislation, depending on the Province for domestic arbitration.

Arbitration is consensual. The parties must have agreed to resolve their differences by arbitration but, if they have so agreed, the court will, in most cases, hold them to their agreement. Essential to the arbitration process are:

Arbitration is not mediation or conciliation. It is adversarial, binding and, as in any court case usually results in a winner and loser. The decision of the arbitrator, known as an Award, is binding on the parties in the same way a court decision is binding.

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