Dispute Resolution Service Changes Name

Media Release

23 October 2013

Dispute Resolution Service Changes Name to Fairway Resolution

Crown-owned company Dispute Resolution Services Ltd (DRSL) has announced a change of name to mark its broadened business focus on all aspects of the conflict management cycle including dispute prevention, analysis and education. The new company name FairWay Resolution Limited takes effect from 1 November and was announced at a function attended by shareholding minister Hon Bill English.

Chief Executive Greg Pollock says the diversification of DRSL’s services is a deliberate strategy to leverage and build on the company’s substantial alternative dispute resolution (ADR) capability, to help organisations and businesses manage conflict more effectively.

“The potential for conflict is inherent, if not inevitable, in all business relationships. It’s how conflict is managed that matters,” says Mr Pollock. “Poorly managed and unresolved workplace conflict drains energy, enthusiasm, productivity and profit from an organisation – it’s recognised as one of the greatest sources of inefficiencies and lost opportunities for economic growth in western economies.”

Topline results from research the company has recently commissioned indicate that within the last 12 months 24% of wage and salary earners surveyed have experienced at least one workplace dispute or disagreement that distracted or prevented them from doing their job. Almost half of these disputes lasted two weeks or more. The research findings, which the company will release in more detail in the next few weeks, are consistent with international studies that reveal the substantial cost of lost productivity through workplace conflict.

Mr Pollock says the growth of alternative dispute resolution, such as mediation and facilitation, reflects the worldwide trend towards early intervention to avoid the time and expense involved in litigation.

“Helping people to resolve conflict as early as possible has many benefits, both to our client organisations and their customers. Learning from disputes, supporting with training and implementing effective systems to handle complaints are all steps that organisations and businesses can take to better manage conflict before it escalates into a dispute.”

DRSL currently handles around 10,000 disputes per year, a large proportion of which are reviews of claims against ACC by accident compensation claimants. The company also operates the Telecommunications Dispute Resolution scheme (TDR), the Financial Dispute Resolution scheme (FDRS) and handles disputes for the Real Estate Agents Authority. As FairWay Resolution the company will build on its dispute resolution business with end-to-end services that help organisations and their customers to manage conflict constructively.

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Background for media:

DRSL (to be known as Fairway Resolution from November 1 2013) is an independent Crown-owned company, which provides specialist complaint management and dispute resolution services between organisations and the people with whom they come into contact.

The company began as a division of the Accident Compensation Corporation, carrying out reviews of claims against the Corporation by accident compensation claimants. Incorporated in 1999 as a stand-alone entity under the ownership of ACC, it became an independent Crown-owned Company in 2011.

While ACC matters are still a substantial part of DRSL’s business, the company has increasingly diversified its client base. It now provides comprehensive conflict management and dispute resolution services across both the public and private sectors, handling issues and disputes of all kinds and all levels of complexity; including medical, insurance, financial services, telecommunications and real estate.

The company has approximately 120 staff nationally, with offices in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch and currently handles some 10,000 disputes per year.

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