National Consumer Tribunal Annual Report 2011/12 National Consumer Tribunal 2011-12 | Page 30

Adjudication (continued)
The Tribunal continually seeks to improve efficiencies and levels of productivity, while at the
same time ensuring that it provides an efficient service to its customers. With an increase in its
caseload of 183%, the Tribunal needed to develop a strategy to handle the increase in case load
within its budget allocation. The strategy adopted related to approximately eight to ten consent
order applications, as opposed to one matter, being allocated to each Tribunal member to h andle
over a three-day period. Consent orders were furthermore adjudicated on in chambers, instead
of having a hearing. This resulted in savings in terms of travel and attendance of a hearing by
the Tribunal member and the debt counsellors, as well as improved levels of efficiency, which
benefitted the Tribunal as well as the filing parties.
Out of the 955 cases that became complete in this financial year, six judgments were issued in
non-consent order matters and 308 consent order and interim relief matters were finalised. The
majority of the remainder of the cases became complete towards the end of the financial year.
The Tribunal faced various challenges in finalising cases. Currently 30,9% of matters filed at the
Tribunal are incomplete. There is no obligation on a party to proceed with a matter once it has
commenced with same, and accordingly there is no tool to ensure that parties complete their filing
so that cases can be heard and finalised. The majority of the incomplete matters are consent
order matters and accordingly until such time as the filing is complete and the order granted,
the consumer does not enjoy the protection offered by the NCA for debt-stressed consumers. A
further challenge that impacts on the Tribunal’s performance is that of respondents who do not
file answering affidavit timeously in non-consent order cases. If the applicant does not file for a
default order, alternatively the respondent files for condonation of late filing, the matter cannot
proceed and becomes dormant. During the next financial year the Tribunal intends to review all
incomplete and dormant cases to identify trends and to establish whether there are any technical
barriers which can be removed to ensure that matters become complete.
Requests for the postponement of cases cause delays in finalising non-consent order matters.
In order to avoid unnecessary postponements, the Tribunal initiated a process of requesting the
parties to a case to provide suitable dates for a hearing, and cases were set down in accordance
with the suitable dates.
Consent orders
The number of consent orders continued to grow from previous years, with an increase of 199%
(from 454 to 1358 - both complete and incomplete) over the previous year.
Various parties can apply for a consent order from the Tribunal. They include an ombud, a
consumer court, an alternate dispute resolution agent, the Regulator or a debt counsellor.
The majority of cases (98%) before the Tribunal are consent order applications. Of these, the
vast majority are from debt counsellors applying to the Tribunal to make debt re-arrangement
agreements entered into between consumers and credit providers into orders (consent orders)
of the Tribunal.
When a consumer has fallen seriously behind in his or her credit instalment payments, or has built
up unmanageable debt, he or she may ask a debt counsellor for help to review his or her debt and
change payment terms to ones that he or she can afford. Once agreement on the new terms has
been reached with all parties, termed a debt re-arrangement agreement, the debt counsellor may
apply to the Tribunal to have the debt re-arrangement agreement made an order of the Tribunal.
Annual Report 2011
page 28 | national consumer tribunal