Keystone Prime is a private commercial arbitration institution offering a panel, rules, platform and venues to the parties under a single all-inclusive fee. Each matter is administered by the institution from referral to award.
Commercial disputes deserve a resolution that is certain in shape, contained in cost, and final in effect. Keystone Prime is built to deliver exactly that.
Every matter enters a track with a clear structure and a known endpoint from the first day. Parties understand what the process will look like before they commit to it, rather than discovering it as they go.
Panel, rules, platform, venues and an official transcript sit under a single all-inclusive fee to the parties. The cost is known at the outset. Nothing is billed by the hour, and nothing is added along the way.
Most institutions set out rules and leave the timetable to drift. Keystone Prime actively holds each matter to its track, so momentum is built into the institution rather than left to the parties to chase.
Disputes are heard by a curated panel of senior practitioners, appointed by invitation. Because they sit on the institution's tariff rather than their own hourly rates, there is no incentive to prolong a matter, and every reason to bring it to a clean conclusion.
Hearings are held in major centres across the country, on a platform hosted within South Africa, applying South African law. Your dispute, and your data, stay home.
Each track runs within a defined timeframe set by the rules: the urgent tracks in hours, Expedited within 120 days, Complex within 150 days, and Appeal within 90 days, extendable by up to 30 days only in exceptional circumstances. Where a party misses a step, the institution holds the timetable and the matter proceeds. To our knowledge, this active enforcement of the procedural timetable is a position no other South African arbitration institution currently holds.
Each matter is registered to one of five tracks on referral, and proceeds under the rules of that track.
A standalone urgent determination for matters that cannot wait.
Urgent interim and preservation relief in support of a pending or intended main arbitration.
A streamlined procedure for straightforward commercial matters on a shorter defined timeline.
High value and multi-issue commercial disputes on the fuller defined timeline.
A limited internal appeal on the merits of an award, where the parties have elected it.
Disputes are heard by an invited panel of senior practitioners, appointed by the institution and sitting on the institutional tariff rather than their own rates, so the cost of the arbitrator is known from the outset.
For each hearing the institution sources and arranges a suitable venue in the place most convenient to the parties, and facilitates virtual and hybrid hearings where that suits the matter. Venue and transcript are provided by the institution as part of the single fee.
When you are ready, beginning a matter is a single, confidential step.