Matters to Pay Attention to When Filing an Arbitration Case
Wang Ze^*

This article will only touch on some important matters when filing an arbitration case with the Beijing Arbitration Commission because of the differences in rules and practices among arbitration organs.

1. Required Materials and Their Counterparts
Articles 7 and 13 of the Rules of the Beijing Arbitration Commission, effective as of April 1, 2008, provide some details for filing materials when submitting an arbitration application. Attention should be given to the following matters when doing so:
1) The main materials that shall be filed include: application for arbitration, evidentiary materials, applicant’s identification documents (where the applicant is a natural person, copies of the identification card or other identification documents shall be filed; where the applicant is a legal person or other organization, the license of or approval document for an enterprise or a public institution and the certificate of the legal representative or the person in charge shall be filed), and power of attorney.
2) Counterparts of such materials: the materials shall be in quintuplicate for normal procedures and triplicate for summary procedures. When there are more than two parties to the case, more counterparts in proportion to the additional parties shall be filed.
The materials that should be filed when submitting an arbitration application:
http://www.bjac.org.cn/program/tijiaoziliao.html
To download standard arbitration forms：
http://www.bjac.org.cn/program/book.html

2. Application for Arbitration
Parties to an arbitration case are likely to mistakenly use litigation terms in arbitration. For example: “claimant,” “respondent”, “counterclaim claimant”, “counterclaim respondent” are the addressing terms in arbitration, but often, “plaintiff” or “petitioner” is mistakenly used instead of “claimant”, “defendant” or “petition respondent” instead of “respondent”, “counter claimant” instead of “counterclaim claimant”, and “counter respondent” instead of “counterclaim respondent”.
The arbitration application is the equivalent document to the civil complaint for litigation and the standard expression should be “application for arbitration” instead of “application”, “petition”, and etc.
Moreover, terms like “order”, “verdict” or “judgment”, are terms used in litigation, whereas “award” should be the term used in arbitration; thus, the more standard expression for an arbitration claim (not “a litigation claim”) in an arbitration application should be “claim for the award of…”
Lastly, the charges for filing an arbitration case should be “arbitration costs”, instead of “litigation costs”.

3. Evidentiary Materials
First of all, evidentiary materials should be attached with a corresponding list or a catalogue of materials. Also, it is suggested that the matters to be proved are described in detail. Lastly, it would be better if the evidentiary materials are given corresponding page numbers for reference. Where there are a large number of evidentiary materials, some lawyers prefer to bind the materials into a book so as to keep them complete and consistent.

4. Power of Attorney
The expressions for powers of representation in arbitration are different to a certain degree from those in litigation, and parties are likely to mistakenly use litigation terms for power of attorney in arbitration. Moreover, expressions like “specifically authorize” or “generally authorize” should be made definite when filing an arbitration case. Another difference between arbitration and litigation is that there is an arbitrator appointment procedure in arbitration. If a representative wishes to appoint an arbitrator or arbitrators for a party, the representative should be authorized to do so as well. Given the above considerations, it is suggested that parties use the standard form for power of attorney provided by our Commission.

5. Arbitration Costs
The methods for computing arbitration costs and litigation costs are very different. As for the Beijing Arbitration Commission, the arbitration costs are computed on the basis of the disputed amount with a minimum of 5,100 Yuan. In other words, one would have to pay 5,100 Yuan for arbitration costs even though the disputed amount is only 1 Yuan. Also, the arbitration costs are likely higher than litigation costs for cases in which the disputed amounts are low. Please refer to the following table:

For the computation of arbitration costs：http://www.bjac.org.cn/program/feiyong.html