Here you will find out about what will happen from when you first contact us through to the resolution of your dispute. This is a step-by-step guide to what to expect.
Overview of our process
Our process can be broken into four stages, starting with the first time you contact us and ending with our learning stage. The four stages are:
The contact stage
The request stage
The Talk – Meet – Resolve stage
Learning stage
The contact stage
We start with our optional contact stage where you can contact us to have an initial discussion and we can answer any questions you might have about our services and talk through any concerns you might have. You can decide to skip this and start the process with the request stage.
The request stage
This is where you formally request for us to become involved. You can do this by completing the online form or by phoning us on 0800 119 221. It helps if you have checked if you can use our service but if you're not sure, send your request through and we'll be in touch with you. This generally takes a few days from when you send your request to get an answer from ACC on whether they will agree to use our service.
Another way you can access our service is after you have lodged a review application. You can use our service to see if you can reach an agreement prior to the review hearing. All you need to do is complete a request.
The Talk – Meet – Resolve stage
The Talk – Meet – Resolve stage is our consensus-based process where we get everyone working together to try and sort out the problem. This generally takes a few weeks from when people agree on a date, but sometimes can take longer.
The learning stage
Once we have resolved disputes or closed our case if a resolution is not possible, the first thing we do is get feedback from you to understand your experience of the dispute resolution process. Then we look for systemic issues or patterns that we are seeing and work with everyone involved to try and improve the experiences of people, prevent disputes, and help them get resolved early. We generally do this in a way that does not identify you although there are some situations where we have legal obligations for mandatory reporting. You can learn more about this in our privacy policy.