Dispute Resolution Process Submission

From:		Kim Thibault on behalf of Maxnet
Received:	27 January 2005

As a registrar we have encountered only 1 dispute in the past 2 years and 
the parties resolved it without going to court. As there have been few 
disputes and a legal process for resolving them, Maxnet do wonder if there 
is sufficient need to change the status quo. 

As the review committee will have spent time investigating the pros and cons 
of each we would be interested in knowing their recommendation. 

Of the two options presented the Nominet based version seems to be the best 
for NZ with lower cost to the users. 

I recommend, however, a fee to be paid to the DNC to cover the costs of 
lodging disputes as it will increase the administrative costs. A fee of 
approximately $250 should be enough without being too much. It will 
probably not completely recover the cost to the DNC office but I view this 
as better than no cost. If the fee is payable by to the person / company 
lodging the dispute then it will be a natural filtering device to reduce the 
number of complaints lodged and may motivate some to resolve the dispute 
directly - reducing the cost to the DNC.