Both sides must agree to be bound by the result. The consumer usually has to pay a fee at this point, although the bulk of the cost is met by the industry. That scheme received 15,933 complaints in the year to July 1997, of which 1,472 went on to arbitration. Under the ABTA scheme, the arbitration fee can range from 65 to 112 depending on the size of the claim. C20 Most arbitrations are organised through the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, which has a panel of 300 active arbitrators, of whom about 70 are qualified lawyers.
Cases usually involve a single arbitrator making a decision on the papers.
C23 There are private sector ombudsmen covering banking, building societies, estate agents, funerals, insurance, investments, legal services and pensions. Around 240 county courts in England and Wales also deal with most types of civil proceedings. About half the cases that attended court might have been on the multi track. 94,050 cases were disposed of by arbitration in the small claims court. In 1996-97, the total cost of the civil courts was 325 million.