AUSTRALIA’S FIRST ALTERNATIVE dispute res olution (ADR) centre specialising in sci ence, technology and intellectual property has opened in Sydney. The Technology Dispute Centre (TDC) com prises Fellow and Senior Fellow media tors and arbitrators with training and aptitude in the three areas.

According to Philip Argy of ArgyS tar.com, a Senior Fellow and founder of the centre, it is one of the few centres of its kind anywhere in the world.

“It will offer a wide range of services to assist businesses to avoid and resolve commercial disputes, with centre-of-excel lence focus on those disputes which involve some kind of scientific or technological subject matter,” he said.

Argy explained that it is often difficult to achieve a satisfactory resolution to technology-related disputes through tra ditional litigation or dispute resolution channels, because of the complex nature of the subject matter.

“Historically lawyers are trained in the humanities and not in science and technology, and some are even technol ogy-averse,” he said. “The consequence is that they cannot generate options for the parties to consider that take account of the technical possibilities.”

Similar problems often arise when mat ters hit the courts, with cases becoming a “battle of experts”.

“If it’s a particularly arcane techni cal area you might as well throw a dice,” Argy maintained. “A judge often cannot choose between two experts, so the like lihood that the truth will come out is quite low. Certainly the parties are not going to help a judge understand the issues – they’re just trying to get a decision in their favour.”

A key motivation for the centre’s establishment was a survey con ducted in 2006 which found that in excess of 40 per cent of information and communications technology (ICT) contracts resulted in some form of dispute.

The same survey identified ADR as the preferred method of resolving disputes.

“Litigation is costly, complex and disruptive to business,” Argy noted. “The TDC will, therefore, specialise in avoiding and resolving commer cial disputes in the high-technology sector, as well as providing conven tional commercial dispute resolution services.

Its establishment recognises a growing international trend towards mediation and arbitration as the pre ferred means for resolving disputes.”

Sir Laurence Street, AC KCMG QC and former Chief Justice of NSW, noted the centre’s importance: “Never before has it been more crit ical for business to take advantage of the considerable commercial advan tages which can flow from the timely and effective negotiation and settle ment of complex technology-related disputes.”