Arbitrator’s eBRAM offers quick mediation of contractual disputes for HK$200 as Covid-19 roils Hong Kong’s small businesses
- The non-profit Electronic Business Related Arbitration & Mediation (eBRAM) centre handles disputes of less than HK$500,000 (US$64,500) in value for a HK$200 fee
- The government-backed arbitrator aims to settle each case from mediation and arbitration to a verdict within six weeks
An arbitrator backed by Hong Kong’s government is preparing for contractual disputes to increase in the new year, as the coronavirus outbreak disrupts business operations and work arrangements in a city that is still struggling with its worst recession on record.
“We have dealt with 11 cases in the past few months, one was settled within three days,” So said in an interview with South China Morning Post. The centre, co-founded by the Hong Kong Bar Association and the Law Society in 2018, aims “to increase the public’s understanding of the benefits of mediation and how the platform [can foster] collaboration to find a solution that offers relief” to claimants and respondents, he said.
The eBRAM platform, the brainchild of the Secretary of Justice Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah in 2017 when she was still in private practice as an arbitrator, could not have kicked off sooner, as Hong Kong’s business community, particularly the so-called micro enterprises with fewer than 10 employees, are struggling to stay afloat in the toughest economic contraction in decades. Bankruptcy filings are at a four-year high, rising 6.6 per cent year-on-year in 2020 to 8,693, according to data by the city’s Receiver’s Office.
The coronavirus outbreak, currently in its fourth wave in Hong Kong, is showing signs of reaching a plateau, with 42 new confirmed cases reported on January 14. The infectious disease has sickened 9,385 people, claiming 161 lives in the city.