Expert appraisal

In expert appraisal procedures managed by the Arbitration Board, an amount will be charged for each expert appointed. This amount covers the Board’s administration of the case, including clarification of procedural and legal issues, management of deadlines, etc.

In addition, a fee will be payable to the expert, calculated on the basis of the time spent on the appraisal. Any costs incurred by the expert for transport, destructive interventions, recordings including photographs, etc must also be paid. The payment of expenses relating to special investigations will be agreed with the parties during case proceedings.

The party requesting expert appraisal must initially pay the costs involved.

The Arbitration Board demands payment of an initial deposit of DKK 30,000 to cover case costs. If the respondent also asks questions, the respondent will be charged an initial deposit of DKK 20,000. If it becomes apparent at an early stage of the expert appraisal process that costs such as the expert’s fee will be higher, the deposit will be adjusted accordingly. The initial deposit will in principle never be reduced.

The Arbitration Board will usually not ask an expert to initiate the appraisal until security has been provided to the Board.

At the start of the appraisal, the expert states a time frame for the preparation of the report(s), and then continuously informs the parties and the Arbitration Board if the security provided is no longer believed to be sufficient to cover the anticipated costs. The security amount will be adjusted as and when needed during the appraisal procedure.

As from 1 January 2015 a new procedure is applicable under which the cost of supplementary questions is payable by the party asking the questions. This approach means that sometimes difficult and time-consuming assessments of whether supplementary questions asked are related to an original question or not is avoided. When billing, the expert must specify the amounts charged for each individual question.

For cases filed before 1 January 2015 the system remains the same as before, which means that the party asking the original question has to pay for supplementary questions asked in relation to that question. Payment for any further additional questions will be based on a specific assessment of whether the party asking the original question or the party asking the supplementary question is to pay the costs involved.

After conclusion of the expert appraisal procedure, the parties may ask the Arbitration Board to give a non-binding view on the distribution of appraisal costs. If it proves necessary during the proceedings and the parties agree, a legal arbitrator will rule on procedural matters including the distribution of costs or decide whether a question may be submitted to the appraiser. The legal arbitrator in question will be paid on the basis of the time spent on the matter. The distribution of appraisal costs will otherwise be decided in a subsequent arbitral case, if any.

The party originally requesting the expert appraisal and that party’s legal counsel are liable for payment of the costs of the appraisal. The other party to the appraisal procedure and that party’s legal counsel are liable for payment of the proportion of costs that relates to the preparation of answers to the respondent’s non-ancillary questions and, in cases filed on or after 1 January 2015, to the preparation of answers to the respondent’s own questions.

Prices

A front-end fee of DKK 5,000 and a service charge of DKK 5,000 are charged. In principle, the party requesting expert appraisal is liable for payment of the fee and the service charge. The service charge will be waived if the parties withdraw their request for expert appraisal not later than thirty days after its receipt by the Arbitration Board.

A sum of DKK 5,000 is charged for each additional appraiser appointed.

Unless otherwise agreed, the party who first asks supplementary questions will be charged a fee of DKK 1,000.

A supplementary fee for the start-up of an expert appraisal procedure during arbitral proceedings, including the appointment of a (new) expert and the preparation of additional reports, if required, will also be payable in arbitral cases filed before 1 January 2015 if the first request for expert appraisal/a new expert or supplementary reports was filed after 1 January 2015.

A fee of DKK 8,000 for each expert appointed will be charged in cases files before 1 January 2015.

The Arbitration Board is not registered for VAT, and all fees and charges are therefore exempt from VAT. If and when the Arbitration Board invoices services on which VAT is payable ­– typically expenses related to expert appraisal ­– the VAT amount will be specified in the settlement letter.

A list of Arbitration Board fees and charges can be found below.

Fees and charges

Expert appraisal in ordinary courts of law

On request, the Arbitration Board will propose an expert appraiser for proceedings in an ordinary court of law. The Board charges a fee of DKK 2,500 for each expert proposed.

In the event of justified objection to an expert proposed based on the proposed expert’s lack of impartiality, insufficient qualifications or qualifications that do not fulfil the requirements, another expert will be proposed. If the Arbitration Board does not agree with an objection to an expert, including objections as to whether the expert’s fee estimate is reasonable, the parties may be requested to provide more detailed reasons for their objection. If the Arbitration Board still does not agree, an additional fee of DKK 1,000 will be charged for each new arbitrator proposed.

Once the Arbitration Board has opened a case file, the board will email a confirmation with an FIK code to be used in connection with payment of the fee. In order to ensure speedy processing and correct allocation of payments to individual cases, the FIK code must be used whenever payments are made. The Arbitration Board requests parties not to send a cheque for the amount of fee or to transfer the amount of fee to the Arbitration Board before the case file has been opened.

In any manual transfers, the Arbitration Board file number and the names of the parties and the payer must always be stated.

Questions concerning payments should be sent to bogh@voldgift.dk