Sign Maryland Arbitration Agreement Now

Document type sign arbitration agreement iowa online

good afternoon everyone thank you for attending our webinar this afternoon on the binding arbitration process what we plan to do is kind of walk through the process with you and give you some suggestions in regards to the types of documentation or supporting documentation or examples of that that you can submit with your cases and exactly what type of information you need to submit depending on the type of claim you're submitting so with that we'll go ahead and get started the first slide that we're looking at is just some basic statistics about the binding arbitration process it was put into the UI I am 2008 as an alternative method for participants to use to try to reach resolution and invoice disputes regarding per diem and maintenance and repair charges as well as recently equipment use rental charges were added as a type of charge as well Exhibit D of the UI a outlines the binding arbitration guidelines so if you're ever in need of wanting to find out exactly what type of timeframes need these met or anything you can always reference exhibit D of the UI a it's in the back of the agreement the metrics at the bottom showed the number of cases that we've been submitted since the inception of the program out of that how many of them met the criteria whether they met the timeframe that was established or if the dispute had been disputed with initial EP as it's supposed to be before it's submitted for arbitration and then it gives a breakdown of the case decisions as you can see out of the cases that have gone through the entire process 46 percent of those cases were found in favor of the motor carrier 41 percent were found in favor of the EP and then we have 13 percent where there was a slip decision and a split decision would be if there was an invoice involved where the panel felt that both parties had legitimate arguments so they might have split the amount of the invoice between the both parties so it's like the decision was found in regards to both parties instead of one single party the types of claims that can be submitted under the binding arbitration process we get lots of questions on this often you can submit per diem in voiced disputes and that would include any per diem charges that were related to law stolen equipment although lost stolen equipment charges are not applicable to the binding arbitration process that involved the appreciated replacement value if there are per diem invoices that are related or associated with that law stolen claim those can be submitted under the binding arbitration process maintenance and repair charges that there's a dispute involving M&R charges that's also applicable under the binding arbitration process as well as equipment use rental charges as an acceptable type of charge that can be submitted under the binding arbitration process in regards to how you initiated disputes under the arbitration process the first thing you have to make sure is that you initially dispute the charges or the invoice with the equipment provider and to do that you would need to check the equipment providers uia addendum to see if they had a specific dispute resolution process contained in their addendum if they do not then you would refer back to Section H one of the UI ia which has a default process that allows the motor carrier just dispute the charges thirty days from the date of the invoice and then requires that the EP respond within 30 days of receipt of the motor carriers dispute you have to complete the Notice of Intent form to seek binding arbitration and we'll walk through that later in the session but there's a notice that you need to complete to initiate the fact that you're submitting the claim under binding arbitration and then the fees associated with filing the case there's a fifty dollar initiation filing fee and that's charged regardless of whether the case goes to the binding arbitration panel for review and then if if the full case goes through the full process there is a 250 dollar binding arbitration C that is applicable the prevailing party in the case so if you as the motor carrier initiated the case and you had to pay these fees if you prevailed in the case then the equipment provider would be required to reimburse those charges to you continuing on in regards to the actual initiation of the claim you when you submit the Notice of Intent form you're going to provide your basis of dispute and that basis of dispute would need to include the section of the uia agreement that you believe that the equipment provider or the motor carrier if you're an equipment provider filing a case has not complied with so that needs to be part of the basis of dispute that you provide if you have a problem identifying what provision that is you can certainly contact our office we'll be happy to help you with that in addition you need to make sure that you include the invoice number of the invoice date the date you receive the invoice as well as the date the EP responded to the initial dispute those are all important pieces of information we need to know as ui staff in order to review the case and determine whether it's applicable for or acceptable for submission under the binding arbitration process copies of the invoices that you're disputing should be included as well as well as any out gate or in gate er documentation for each of the invoice that you're disputing and then finally any email communication that you have that shows where you initially dispute at the charges and when the equipment provider responded to your dispute that all should be included with your case documentation when you submit the claim for binding arbitration some examples of documentation that you can submit and these examples are applicable to cases like where you were asked to return equipment to a location and maybe the facility there was a delay that didn't allow you to return the equipment at time these are some examples of that type of documentation so it would be any type of email communications from the terminal itself that shows where there was any type of closure or any type of gate interruption dispatch records that would show that your driver attempted to return the equipment and was able to do so there are some facilities that provide turn away tickets if you have that information it's also a good idea to include that in your case documentation and basically any type of email communication or documentation that you feel supports the argument that you're submitting with the case that you're putting under binding arbitration any of that information that you feel is pertinent you should include in the case and it would and be included in the packet that goes to the binding arbitration panel should the case go through the whole process Exhibit D as I mentioned sets forth the guidelines for the binding arbitration process so basically the steps are that as I mentioned earlier you have to make sure that you submit it and dispute it the initial dispute of the claim with the EP based on their dispute resolution process if they have one in their addendum and if they don't have one then you would use section H one of the uia which is the default process what we're going to do is we're going to make sure when you submit the case that the established time frame for that dispute has been met so we're going to look to see if the equipment provider has a process within their addendum and if they do we're going to make sure your initial dispute of the claimed met that criteria or if the thought process was used that if that process was met after that you as the invoice party would have 15 days from the date the invoicing party denies or responds to your initial dispute to submit the claim for binding arbitration so for example if you're a motor carrier and you submit a initial dispute to an equipment provider the equipment rider comes back and denies your claim indicating that they don't agree with your dispute you would have 15 calendar days from that date to submit the claim for binding arbitration now we've had instances where motor carriers may come back and indicate that the provider never responded if that's the case you need to allow the timeframe that is either in the EPS addendum or what is in the default spute process before you submit the claim so if you submit a dispute to an equipment provider and they allow 30 days to respond to your claim your initial dispute then you wouldn't need to allow those 30 days if they haven't responded in that 30 day period then you would be able to submit the claim for binding arbitration even though you technically didn't receive a response from the EP you have to allow the invoice party or the invoicing party the timeframe that they have to respond before you can submit the for binding arbitration one more thing going back to that slide for this 15-day period there have been times when a equipment provider may come back and simply indicate that David you know received your dispute so they're not technically giving you a response they're just saying we've got your dispute we're looking at it so what we're looking for to start that 15-day clock is the date that they've actually come back and said we've declined your dispute and once we see that email or that communication that's where we're going to start that 15 day clock to see if the claim meets the criteria under exhibit D if you have multiple invoice disputes with the same equipment provider you can submit those all under the single binding arbitration claim as long as they're the same type of charges and they're going to the same or they involve the same equipment provider if you have four DMM voices with two or three equipment providers then you would need to submit separate claims for each of those providers once the Notice of Intent is provided the invoice party would need to make sure that they've provided all of the documentation that we just went through in regards to submitting the claim so once you submit your Notice of Intent in addition to the Notice of Intent you need to include all of your supporting documentation at that same time all the information should be sent to Sherry Parnell sherry Parnell is one of our program managers here that oversees the binding arbitration process she reviews all the claims that come in and then you'll get a response from her once she's reviewed the claims to determine whether it meets the criteria and can go through the process and also whether there is any additional information that we need in order to proceed with the case so you would direct your correspondence to her or email address the shed on the screen there and then you know alternatively of course you can mail the information to our office but most companies send the information via email once we get the Notice of Intent form as I indicated sherry will review the information she'll determine if all the criteria has been met so first she's going to look to see if it was disputed properly with the EP initially with in the proper timeframe if it was then submitted for binding arbitration 15 days from the date invoicing party denied the claim and once we make sure those two items are met then what we do is look at the case to see if there's any additional information that needs to be provided in order for us to move forward with the case if we find that there is a case that is submitted where there's a prior case decision that has been rendered for example we get cases many times involving filled containers with damaged floors so if there's a similar case that has already been rendered when we get that case we will go back to the involved parties and indicate that there's been a similar prior decision that involves the similar set of circumstances and we'll forward that to both parties and let them know that that decisions already been rendered each party would then have ten days to provide any additional information as to why they do not think the prior case decision is applicable to the current claim that's under there wishing to submit for binding arbitration once we get any type of comment from either party in regards to that the case then goes through the full process to the binding arbitration panel for review and final determination if there is no comments received by the parties within the ten days then we go back responding party indicating that the prior case decision will be upheld in this claim and then they would have to take the appropriate action you know depending on who the prior case decision was found in favor of so we'll let all parties know that if no comments are received within that 10-day period if the claim does meet the criteria for submission under binding arbitration process and it's going to go through the whole process the actual case documentation is then forwarded to the responding party for comment they have 15 days to provide their comments once they provide their comments we then compile the case and then send it to the arbitration panel for review and determination the arbitration panel members are made up of IAC members the group that oversees the administration of the UI ia so it would go to modal members are involved in the case so if it's a case involving a steamship line and a motor carrier that's who would review it as far as the modal arbitration panel members if it involves a rail and a motor carrier then it would be a rail IAC member and a motor carrier member during the time the claim is under arbitration of the provider can not send a motor carriers interchange for the for the charges that are under arbitration and once that case has been rendered then it would be up to the parties to meet the terms and conditions of the decision rendered under the UI ia and the binding arbitration process this slide goes into a little detail in regards to how the process goes once the case goes to the arbitration panel members as I indicated it will go to the modal arbitration panel members that are involved in the claim they have 45 days to render their decision once they rendered the decision both parties the invoice and the invoicing party will be notified of the panel's decision the party that the case is found against will be responsible for the arbitration administrative fees associated with filing the case so if the motor carrier was the moving party in the case and they paid the arbitration filing fees then it would be up to the equipment rider to reimburse them and then what we will do is when we provide you with that decision if you're a motor carrier in this example we would provide you with with the point of contact at the equipment provider to send the invoice to them for the reimbursement of the filing fees there's no appeal process offered under the binding arbitration process all decisions are final the case decisions are posted on the UI website and we encourage parties to use those prior case decisions as a reference tool prior to you submitting a claim for binding arbitration to see if there's a prior decision out there that is similar to the case that you're trying to submit I'm going to show you later and just a few minutes where you can find that information on the uia website but it's a very valuable tool if you're looking for case decisions that you have a case that you're not sure whether maybe it has gone through the arbitration process by checking our website you'd be able to determine that as I mentioned the IC the intermodal interchange executive committee serves as the arbitration panel members we have teams that we rotate on a monthly basis and each team will receive four cases a month to review if we have four case during that month again it's reviewed by the two modal panel members and if they are unable to reach a consensus on the decision then we now have a senior arbitration panel team that those types of cases would go to so if it's tiebreaker and metal members are unable to reach a consensus it would go to the senior arbitration panel team which is comprised of the longest-tenured IAC members from the rail motor and ocean modes those three would review the case and then they would render a final determination in that particular case and all decisions are rendered based on the terms and conditions of the uia and the EP addenda that is associated with the case what I'd like to do at this point is kind of walk you through the Notice of Intent Worm this is the Notice of Intent document if there's a packet that we provide and it's made available in the UA website as well any party that's interested in submitting a claim just the packet you would need to download if you're the moving party of the claim you're initiating the claim you're going to fill in your company name your scat code the contact and email address of the person within your company that we can reach if we need any information as well as their phone and fax number and then you're going to check this box to just confirm that you agree that you met all the established timeframes for initially disputing the charges with the equipment provider or the invoicing party and that you've also met this 15-day timeframe when we get this if the case is going to go through the full arbitration process we would send the same form to the responding party and they would fill in this bottom part the second page of the document identifies the fees that are associated with filing the claim what you would need to do is when you file the claim you would provide us with your credit card your credit card would then be charged for this $50 initiation fee only initially we would charge that for you to submit the claim once we review the claim if it goes through the full process then your chart your card would be charged for the two hundred and fifty dollars you won't get charged this 250 if some reason you submit the claim and there's a $50 charge for submission and we go out to the equipment provider and then after the equipment provider used the case they decide to cancel the invoice if they cancel the end voice then the only charge you're going to get is this fifty dollar charge and that's just a simple charge to submit the claim going down to the next page this there's pages within this document that identify what information or documentation you need to submit depending on the type of claim you're submitting if you're submitting a maintenance and repair dispute this outlines all the information you would need to complete or provide us when submitting that claim I guess one of the most important information on this page is that you need to make sure you provide us with photos if there's any type of a gif images or anything associated with maintenance and repair claim you would need to make sure that you provide those images to us in a JPEG format another item that's important with email communications that you submit to us it would be helpful if you submitted those email communications in Word format so that you cut and paste those in a Word document and then you send this to us go what we need to do on this side once we get them is we need to put them in chronological order for the arbitration panel so when we get PDFs or we get hundreds of email chains we have to go through all of those which takes time which can possibly delay the submission of your case to the arbitration panel so if at all possible when you submit email communications if you can just cut and paste them in a Word document and then we'll put them in order once we get the word document from you but it's a lot easier from us for us to do the chronological order of the email communications if they're in word versus if they're sent to us in a PDF format same with per-diem disputes with a per diem dispute of course there's no photo that would have to be provided but you do need to provide the in and out Gaetti IRS and any email communications that support your argument in regards to the dispute that you're submitting and then the same would be true with the equipment use rental charge if the claim involves that that would kind of follow the per diem dispute guidelines so we'd have to provide your basis of dispute the section in the agreement that you think that was not complied with as well as all the information that you see on this page one last item in this document you have the Exhibit D guidelines it's part of the document so if you need to refer to that you would be able to do so and last is a list of the DRP contacts for each of the uia equipment providers should you need to contact them for any reason but these are the individuals that we will be sending the information to for the EPS response if the claim is if the equipment writer is the responding party in the claim so if we go back to our UI website we just recently redesigned the uia website so hopefully you all have had the chance to take a look at it but on the home page of the uia website if you scroll down to the bottom there's a whole section now on the binding arbitration process but you can click on this button to view prior case decisions so this is going to take you to a page where one you can download the packet you can download exhibit D which are the guidelines to the agreement to the binding arbitration process or you can also look for prior case decisions so right now all of our cases are related to maintenance and repair or per diem so if you had a maintenance and repair claim you'd be able to click the drop down and they are organized by section of the agreement that they are associated with so if there is a decision that was rendered based on section D of the agreement if you click this it's going to give you the section D the wording to section D and then a link to all the prior decisions that are associated with this language so if the panel found their decision rendered on this section of the agreement this is where you would find those prior case decision that is for all of the various provisions that are listed and then for per diem case this would be the same you click the drop down and say that you're looking for a case involving whether the time frame to issue per diem billing that would be section e of the agreement so you're going to go here and that would be section e 6 so here's all of the provisions under section e in any of the case decisions that were found based on this provision would be under that within this link so if you clicked this link it's going to bring up the case decision where you can see what that particular case was rendered by so we do encourage to everyone to use this option to look at prior case decisions we think it's a you know a useful and we we've seen more and more companies using it so I would encourage you to look at four prior case decisions before you submit a claim just to see if there is one out there that's similar in nature because if it is then when you submit your claim you would include that case decision as well because then if we determine that it is in fact the same set of circumstances then it goes into that process where we notify both the responding in the moving party that there's a prior case decision then each party has ten days to provide additional comments as to why they think the prior case decision is not applicable however but if there's no comments received then we automatically apply the prior case decision to the current claim so it's very important I think that you you know try to use this tool when prior to submitting cases and then of course there's a download button here to get the actual arbitration package that I would thank everyone for joining us this afternoon if you have any other questions regarding the binding arbitration process after this webinar please feel free to contact our office at eight seven seven four three eight eight four four two or by email at our general mailbox which is ui ia at intermodal org thank you and have a good afternoon