Many commercial agreements include dispute resolution clauses which provide for the President of certain organisations to nominate an expert (or experts) to determine certain issues in dispute.
There have been recent changes to the name and legal status of some of the commonly used organisations, and one in particular no longer takes requests to nominate its members.
LEADR and IAMA are in the process of integrating to the one organisation. The new name is set to be announced in the coming weeks.
Since 30 June 2015, the Chartered Accountants ANZ (formerly known as the Institute of Chartered Accountants), no longer accept requests to the President to nominate members.
Your clients may have commercial agreements in place which contain a dispute resolution clause that provides for the President of the Institute to nominate an expert to determine certain accounting issues in dispute, such as the valuation of shares.
If the organisation no longer exists, your client needs to takes steps to prevent the risk of the dispute resolution process being frustrated.
In light of the above changes, it is suggested you recommend clients review these agreements, to provide for an alternate organisation. It is suggested parties agree to nominate the President of the Law Society/Institute in the state which is the jurisdiction that governs the contract.
