avoiding-excessive-paperwork-in-dispute-resolution.md

title: Avoiding Excessive Paperwork in Dispute Resolution excerpt: date: 2024-03-27T14:15:46Z modified: 2025-07-23T11:11:35Z file_type: md permalink: clauses/avoiding-excessive-paperwork-in-dispute-resolution.html wpid: 2003 status: publish type: clause jurisdiction:

• England & Wales maintenance-status:
• Not maintained practice-area:
• Litigation and dispute resolution eleventyComputed: clause_child_name: "Toby's Clause" clause_summary: A contractual obligation between the parties stating that, in the event of a dispute, parties agree to settle it in a ‘green’ manner. clause_last_updated_date: 2023-07-03 layout: layouts/clause.njk

Avoiding Excessive Paperwork in Dispute Resolution

Child’s name

Toby's Clause

Summary

A contractual obligation between the parties stating that, in the event of a dispute, parties agree to settle it in a ‘green’ manner.

What this clause does

This clause can be used in any commercial agreement and provides certainty that any dispute must be handled in a manner that reduces the use of paper. The clause also includes a commitment by both parties to offset emissions arising from any dispute and to consider how such dispute may be handled in a way that minimises greenhouse gas emissions.

Clause Content

Dispute management

[Drafting note: this clause contains short form green dispute resolution clauses. For more detailed green dispute resolution drafting, refer to [Emilia’s Protocols] Green Litigation and Arbitration Protocols, [Mia’s Clause] Low Carbon Arbitrations and the Campaign for Greener Arbitration’s Model Clause and Green Protocols.]

[Drafting note: capitalised terms relate to either a defined term in this clause or a defined term in the main agreement that this clause is designed to be inserted into.]

1. If a dispute arises under or relating to this contract:

1.1 all notices and communications between the parties will be sent by electronic means; and

1.2 the parties shall use Electronic Bundles for all meetings and hearings.

2. The obligation at clause 1 is subject to any party’s obligation to the contrary found in any relevant court or tribunal order, procedural rule, practice direction or court guide.

3. Where a hard copy bundle is used at any stage in a dispute, the parties must:

3.1 print double-sided;

3.2 use environmentally-friendly toner and ink;

3.3 use recycled paper;

3.4 use cardboard (non-plastic) tabs, dividers and folders; and

3.2 subject to any legal obligations to retain copies, dispose of the bundle by recycling it in a secure and confidential manner.

4. Within [one month] of the resolution of any dispute or at a relevant stage of a dispute, the parties shall appoint an independent third party [e.g. the Carbon Trust] to calculate the Carbon Footprint.

5. The independent third party’s costs shall be [shared equally by the parties/ paid by the losing party].

6. Within [one month] of receiving the independent third party’s calculation of the Carbon Footprint, [the parties/ the losing party] will offset the Carbon Footprint by:

6.1 planting Native Trees; or

6.2 purchasing carbon credits from a project:

(a) that has been verified in accordance with [insert name of voluntary standard] or from a United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) clean development mechanism [or [successor/ equivalent] UNFCCC mechanism];

(b) where the emissions of Greenhouse Gases avoided, reduced or removed by the project are additional;

(c) that prioritises removing Greenhouse Gases from the atmosphere rather than avoiding or reducing third party emissions of Greenhouse Gases;

(d) that for Greenhouse Gas removals, uses storage methods with a low risk of reversal over millennia[./; and

(e) that takes account of a just transition and addresses wider social and ecological goals.]