Disputants | Learn About the Process If You're a Disputant

Who is a disputant?

A disputant is the person against whom a claimant has issued a claim, indicating that the disputant has breached an agreement in some way.

Examples:

• I was hired as a freelancer on Braintrust. The client is claiming that I submitted poor work quality, and doesn’t believe I should be paid the entire invoiced amount.
• I hired a Braintrust talent for my project. The talent is claiming that I am withholding payment on their invoice for unreasonable claims.

Before the formal Dispute Resolution process starts:

Before formal Dispute Resolution begins, we strongly encourage all parties to attempt to resolve the issue amongst themselves. We have opened up the messaging portal on Braintrust to allow direct communication between two parties. The vast majority of disputes can be resolved without having to use this formalized process. In fact, starting the formalized process can be a barrier to amicable resolution.

Before formal Dispute Resolution begins, and before you are notified there has been a claim filed against you, you should have an idea about the conflict due to direct conflict resolution attempts.

The start of the formal Dispute Resolution Process:

If one party feels that an amicable resolution cannot be met, they can initiate the Dispute Resolution Process by completing a claim form. Once a claim has been filed, a Jury Arbitrator will start a case file and complete the claim form, and notify you about the claim.

Even after a claim is made, you are welcome to still communicate directly with the claimant to solve the claim directly. If a resolution is found, the claimant and the disputant will need to notify the Jury Arbitrator.

Once you have been notified by the Jury Arbitrator that a claimant has filed the claim against you, you will have 10 days to take action. Actions you can take:

• Accept the claim and settle.
  • If you accept the claim and settle, you accept the resolution the claimant is seeking. The Jury Arbitrator will close the case and notify BT core members with any actions that need to be taken.
• Reject the claim and create a counterclaim
  • If you reject the claim, you can create a counterclaim. The Jury Arbitrator will work with you to create the counterclaim, asking questions for clarity and will notify the original claimant. The counterclaim will include:
    • The resolution you’re seeking/desired outcome
    • The grounds on which you’re staking your counterclaim
    • Supporting evidence and voluntary commentary.

Disputants will be notified no less than three times after the initial claim is sent. If you take neither of the above actions, nor notify the Jury Arbitrator of a mutually agreed on resolution, the claim is automatically accepted and changes are applied. The Jury Arbitrator will close the case and notify BT core members with any actions that need to be taken.

After filing your counterclaim:

When disputants file a counterclaim, the Dispute Resolution program is escalated. In the event that the dispute is escalated, because the disputant filed a counterclaim, the original claimant will have an opportunity to respond. Claimants can:

• Accept the counterclaim and settle.
  • If the claimant accepts the counter claim and settles, the Jury Arbitrator will close the case and notify BT core members with any actions that need to be taken.
• Drop the original claim
  • If the claimant drops their original claim, the Jury Arbitrator will close the case and notify BT core members that no actions need to be taken.
• Rejects the counter claim and escalates to a jury process.
  • If the claimant rejects the counterclaim, the dispute is escalated to the jury process.

The original claimant will be notified no less than three times after the initial counter claim is sent. If the original claimant takes none of the above actions, the counter claim is automatically rejected by the claimant and the official jury arbitration takes place.

Escalating the case to the final Jury/Eye Witness Step:

If both claimant and disputant are holding to their claim/counterclaim, then the case is escalated to the jury/eyewitness step.

Both the Claimant and Disputant will have an opportunity to write an optional 500 word statement to accompany their claims/counterclaims. These will be added to the official documentation for the case and be presented to the jury.

The Jury Arbitrator will review both the claim and the counterclaim and identify subjective statements. Subject statements might include something like “the talent should have been able to complete the required work in half the time invoiced, based on the skill set and experience level they presented.” The Jury Arbitrator will select three eyewitnesses from the Jury Member volunteer list to weigh in on the statements. The eyewitnesses will be selected based on the expertise (skills, industries, etc) listed on their Braintrust profiles. Selected eyewitnesses will be given the case file, both the claim and counterclaim, and a list of the subjective statements. Eyewitnesses will have three days to offer an opinion on the subjective statements.

Based on the Eyewitness findings, the Jury Arbitrator can add a third resolution that the Jury Members can vote on. This third resolution is some middle ground between the two sides. This is used when both sides share a sizable amount of responsibility and the Jury Arbitrator believes there is an alternative option besides either the claimant or the disputant having their full sought resolution as an option.

If the Jury Arbitrator choses to add this option, then that option will be added to the case file and shared to the Jury Members.

Once the case file is completed with the claimant’s claim, the disputant’s counterclaim, additional optional statements (if provided), and eye witness statements, the jury will be selected.

Claimants and Disputants will have access to the Jury List and can each select a Jury Member to join the case. The Jury Arbitrator will randomly select a third Jury member.

The Jury will have access to all information related to the case including the original job description, talent’s proposals, and official offer. They will have three days to assess the case and make a final decision. The Jury Members will not know which other Jury Members are issuing judgements in the case until all results are received.

When the final decision is made by the Jury Members, the Jury Arbitrator will then move to close the case file.

Closing the Case:

Whenever a case is closed, regardless of the outcome, the Jury Arbitrator will write a final resolution to the case and notify Braintrust Core team of any invoice changes that need to be made. The official case file will be kept in-tact and will be made accessible to Braintrust core team members and future Jury Arbitrators. In addition the Jury Arbitrator will also create a public version of the case file that excludes identifying details. These “washed” case files are available upon request.