Curtis Counsel Sabine Schmidt publishes case note in the German Arbitration Journal (SchiedsVZ)

Frankfurt based counsel Sabine Schmidt has published a case note in the prestigious German arbitration journal, SchiedsVZ.

The note concerns proceedings commenced by a former claimant’s application for a declaration of enforceability of an award. The Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main (“OLG Frankfurt”) had rejected respondent’s request for a court order against the president of the arbitral tribunal to submit her case files to the OLG Frankfurt, on the basis that a submission can only be made with the consent of all parties and all arbitrators and that the latter had not granted their consent.

Sabine points to previous authorities, to draw a distinction between the arbitration case file (which contains all correspondence between the arbitrator(s) and the parties, including all exchanged briefs, minutes and orders of the arbitral tribunal) and the arbitrator file (which contains all correspondence between the arbitrators themselves, votes and other statements, which must not be disclosed in view of the secrecy of the deliberations). Her note examines whether the consent of the arbitrators is also required for the submission of the arbitration case file, to which the respondent’s request actually referred.

For more detail, please contact Sabine Schmidt in the Frankfurt office.