Elance Dispute Resolution

Just the thought of dealing with a contract dispute reduces many a freelancer to a quivering mass of gelatinous stress, and gives many a buyer cold feet before a project even begins. It doesn’t have to be that way!

You’ve chosen Elance for their many features, and this includes their full commitment to helping buyers and freelancers resolve any disputes that arise, by offering three levels of dispute assistance.

Still, the concept of dispute assistance is enough to give anyone pause, so it’s time to demystify the process and show you how dispute resolution doesn’t have to be painful.

It’s important to note that less than one percent of contracts on Elance end up in a dispute, and ninety-nine percent are completed to the full satisfaction of both the client and provider. In other words, it is very rare that you’ll find yourself faced with a project dispute. However, it’s not a perfect world, and problems do occasionally crop up, so it’s good to know how exactly to proceed.

If you have come to an impasse on a project and cannot resolve it between the buyer and the provider, Member Resolution is step one. Simply go to the job workroom and click the ‘more’ heading in the left hand column, then click ‘file dispute’. This will bring you to the dispute resolution center of your workroom where you can click ‘file dispute notice’. This will then bring you to the ‘dispute notice form’ where you can detail the cause of your dispute. Make sure you provide as many details as you can, including all positive and negative performance by either party leading up to the dispute. The more details you can provide, the easier it is to resolve the dispute.

Once you’ve submitted the form, both the other party and Elance are informed, and all funds currently in Escrow are frozen pending resolution. The other party has three business days to submit a good faith response to your dispute. At this stage, many disputes are resolved between the client and freelancer, as misunderstandings are cleared up.

However, if you unfortunately cannot come to an agreement at this stage, and there are funds being held in Escrow, you can request to move on to step two: Elance Dispute Assistance. At this stage, Elance will arrange a ‘dispute assistance call’ with both parties, where they act as a mediator in an attempt to help the parties resolve the dispute. The do not make any determination and cannot impose any decisions. They simply try to facilitate a resolution. There is no fee for Elance Dispute Assistance.

In the unfortunate event that the parties still cannot come to an agreement, a request for third party arbitration can be made. There is a fee for this, determined by the contract amount, which is shared by the two parties and Elance equally.

The arbitrator (or arbitration panel for larger jobs) reviews all of the material including material submitted during the dispute, all communication exchanged by the parties through the workroom during the entire course of the project, and all files uploaded. This demonstrates exactly why it is important to make sure all communication is done through the workroom, or in the case of conference calls, etc. that work is noted and outlined in follow-up workroom messages.

Once review is complete, the arbitrator will make a final decision that is binding on both parties, including the release or refund of funds held in Escrow.

Disputes are never fun, and Elance is designed to make sure that disputes are few and far between. Less than one percent means that many buyers and freelancers can go their entire careers without ever running into a problem, but if you do happen to end up in a situation you can’t resolve, you can turn to Elance for help.



Fantastic pic by FlyinPhotography