§ 172.212.Costs

The cost provision, and it is narrower than the arbitration equivalent.

The conciliator sets the costs on termination and gives written notice of them to each party.

Costs are borne equally by default. The parties share them unless the settlement agreement provides for a different apportionment.

A party’s own expenses stay with that party. Any other expense a party incurs is its own.

The definition is closed. The section says costs includes only four items, which is unusual drafting in a chapter full of inclusive definitions.

The first is a reasonable fee to each conciliator.

The second is travel and other reasonable expenses of each conciliator and each witness requested by the conciliator with the consent of each party.

The third is expert advice requested by the conciliator with the consent of each party.

The fourth is any court cost.

Legal fees are conspicuously absent, which is the sharpest contrast with Section 172.145, where the arbitration tribunal may include legal fees among the costs it allocates.

The difference fits the process. There is no winner in a conciliation to shift fees to.

Written notice of the costs is required, so the parties learn the amount from the conciliator rather than from an invoice later.

Consent runs through two of the four items. Witness expenses and expert advice count only where the conciliator sought them with each party’s consent.