NAIS Presentation

PRESS RELEASE

12 May 2016/Sofia

Presentation of the project of the National Association for Out-of-court Settlements (NAIS), for the Centre for Alternative Dispute Resolution - NAIS PRO.

 

In front of representatives of state institutions and branch organisations, the National Association for Out-of-Court Settlements (NAIS) presented its project – Centre for Alternative Dispute Resolution NAIS PRO. The centre is the first structure in Bulgaria of its kind, to work on the hybrid model of MedArb for resolving disputes between consumers and traders.

 

The presentation was attended and took an active part with questions and recommendations

  • Professor Kamelia Kasabova, Chairman of the Conciliation Commission on Payment Disputes at the Consumer Protection Commission (CPC);
  • Ms Diana Kovacheva, Deputy Ombudsman;
  • Vladimir Karolev, Advisor to the Minister of Economy;
  • as well as representatives of the Ministry of Finance, branch organisations and companies in the field of financial, municipal, telecommunications and other services.

 

The chairmen of the three founding organisations explained the project and answered the questions.

  • Bogomil Nikolov, Chairman of the Association “Active Consumers”;
  • Eliza Nikolova, Chairman of the Professional Association of Mediators in Bulgaria (PAMB);
  • Nikolay Tsvetanov, Chairman of the Association for Responsible Nonbank Credit (AONK).

The reason for the establishment of NAIS  and the development of an online platform for alternative dispute resolution working on the hybrid model of MedArb is the extremely unfavourable context for consumers – arbitration decisions serially issued by “private courts” with minimal possibility of consumer protection, lack of executive power of decisions resulting from mediation proceedings.

 

Nais PRO solves these problems for consumers, such as

 

  • the initiative passes from the trader to the consumer, only the consumer can initiate the procedure;
  • the consumer not only initiates the procedure, but also has the possibility to terminate it if a solution is not reached that satisfies him;
  • thanks to the online platform and the specificity of mediation production, resource equality between consumers and traders is guaranteed during the procedure, as well as access to the procedure for users from all over the country;
  • the procedure is extremely inexpensive for the parties and can be concluded in a short time with an enforceable

The hybrid method Med Arb for solving disputes takes place in two consecutive and indivisible stages:

 

Initiated by a user, the procedure starts and proceeds as mediation. Once the parties, in the mediation of a mediator, have reached an agreement, a decision which implementation at this stage is voluntary shall be formulated.

The decision reached by agreement between the consumer and trader parties shall be transferred to arbitration proceedings and the arbitrator may only validate the voluntary agreement reached as it is, without any possibility of change, or if it establishes circumstances that would lead to the nullity of the decision, shall return it to the Parties with its respective observations.

Under the Med Arb method, a consumer and a trader reach a voluntary agreement between them in mediation production. A subsequent arbitration proceeding with a decision that repeats, without amending, this from the mediation proceedings, giving it enforceable power, or returning it to remedy irregularities. In this way, the parties have all the time clarity and control over the final decision that they will have to implement and in no way can they find themselves surprised by an unacceptable but binding decision for them.

 

Posted on 12.05.2016 Back in the news

Published on 12.05.2016 Back to news