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Alternative Dispute Resolution
PARDAMCOVÁ, Marie
The project of ?Alternative dispute resolution? imports an innovative and effective instrument of consumer protection to the Czech Republic. The ADR works in Czech Republic since 2008. The whole procedure is easy and it is not obligatory for adverse parties. There are three methods of disputes resolution: qualified counsel, mediation and arbitration. Concerning mediation, the problem is the willingness of the procedure. That is the reason, why more than 80 % of delivered suggestions end with non-cooperation from the adverse party. Even if an agreement were found during the mediation, this agreement is not binding. Arbitration is on payment and most of the consumers identify it with the juridical process. But in case of arbitration, the resulting arbitration award is binding for both adverse parties. The fee is paid by the party who has lost the dispute. The work focuses above all on the awareness of ADR and on consumers´ rights. The work revealed that a quarter of all respondents don´t know their rights. The awareness of ADR is very poor also. The research results showed that only 14.4 % of respondents know what ADR is. Nevertheless, the results from the period of 1st April 2011 to 31st January 2012 show, that the project has a future, because the statistics of registered cases have a rising tendency. But without an effective publicity, it will take a long time before the consumers´ awareness of this possibility extends. The Ministry of industry and commerce issued an informative leaflet within the pilot period of the project. However, it was not distributed to the consumers in the right way. In the Czech Republic, there is a lack of consumers´ education due to a difficult access to legal regulation. The legislation is for a Czech consumer hardly findable but above all, it is incomprehensible. Nowadays, fortunately there exist a lot of web sites where all needed information can be found rapidly and in a shorter version. Due to my own experience I know, that an overwhelming majority of consumers looks for advices only after they did not succeed with a claim or after another problem with a vendor occurred.
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