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Why Brief Arbitration Rules
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For Alternative Lenders

One arbitration clause. Every product type. Every dispute resolved in 45 days.

Term loans. Lines of credit. Equipment financing. Revenue-based lending. Your dispute exposure doesn't care which product defaulted. Brief handles all of them through a single, enforceable arbitration process.

Trusted by Ironwood Finance. No upfront fees. Claims up to $500K.

Brief covers your entire portfolio

Term loans
Lines of credit
Equipment financing
Revenue-based lending
Bridge loans
Invoice financing
Working capital loans
One clause. One process. One platform.

You built a better lending product. You're still using 1990s dispute resolution.

Alternative lenders disrupted the origination side of lending. Faster approvals. Better underwriting. Cleaner UX. But when a borrower defaults, the infrastructure hasn't changed: you're calling attorneys, navigating court systems that weren't designed for your product types, and spending $15,000–$40,000 in legal fees to recover $50,000.

The irony: you're a fintech that still resolves disputes like it's 1995.

The specific pain points:

  • Multiple product types, multiple legal strategies. A term loan dispute looks different from a line of credit dispute. Equipment financing has lien and collateral issues. Revenue-based lending has characterization questions. Every product type means a potentially different legal strategy.
  • Default rates that make individual litigation uneconomical. Even a 3–5% default rate at volume means dozens of disputes per year. At $15,000 per attorney engagement, you're spending six figures annually on dispute overhead.
  • Borrowers in multiple jurisdictions. You've underwritten borrowers across 20+ states. Each jurisdiction has its own court system, timeline, and legal costs. Coordinating this at scale is an operational nightmare.

Brief gives you one dispute resolution infrastructure that works across every product.

Add Brief's arbitration clause to your standard loan agreement, your line of credit agreement, and your equipment financing document. One integration. One process. One platform.

When a default occurs, regardless of the product type, the resolution path is identical:

  • File the claim online
  • Upload the agreement and default documentation
  • E-Judge assigned by jurisdiction and subject matter
  • Binding award in ~45 days
  • Enforce in any U.S. court

Ironwood Finance built Brief into their standard agreements across their lending portfolio.

Ironwood Finance uses Brief to resolve defaults across MCA and factoring products. When a default occurs, the arbitration process is already embedded in the agreement. Brief awards are issued in ~45 days and domesticated into enforceable judgments.

~45 daysper dispute
70–90%less than litigation
Allproduct types covered

Brief doesn't just save money. It changes how you operate.

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Predictable Resolution Timelines

Litigation timelines are unpredictable. Brief's 45-day process is defined. You can model your collection timeline. You can report to your capital partners with confidence. Predictability has operational value that's hard to quantify until you have it.

📈

Scale Without Proportional Legal Spend

With traditional dispute resolution, legal spend scales linearly with disputes. Ten disputes mean ten attorney engagements. With Brief, the marginal cost of an additional dispute is the filing fee. Your legal overhead doesn't scale with your portfolio.

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Borrower Relationships Preserved Where Possible

Brief's process includes a settlement phase before adjudication. Some disputes resolve through settlement, which can preserve the borrower relationship for future financing. Litigation always ends the relationship.

What default resolution actually costs you.

Based on a $60,000 term loan default. No attorneys on Brief's side.

BriefTraditional Litigation
Filing Fee~$1,500$500–$2,000
Attorney Fees$0 required$12,000–$25,000
Time to Award/Judgment~45 days8–24 months
Jurisdictional ComplexityBrief handles nationallyState-specific, requires local counsel
Outcome PredictabilityHigh (defined process)Low (depends on court, judge, local rules)
Award Enforceability Court-enforceable Court-enforceable
Net Recovery on $60K~$56,000–$58,000~$33,000–$45,000

Brief

Filing fee: ~$1,500
Attorney fees: $0 required
Timeline: ~45 days
National coverage
Recovery: ~$56K–$58K

Traditional Litigation

Filing fee: $500–$2K
Attorney fees: $12K–$25K
Timeline: 8–24 months
Local counsel required
Recovery: ~$33K–$45K
The difference isn't whether you win. It's how much you keep when you do.

Your borrowers are in 30 states. Brief covers all of them.

One of the biggest operational headaches for alternative lenders is jurisdictional complexity. A borrower in Texas defaults. Your agreement has a New York governing law clause. Your collection attorney is in New Jersey. Coordination alone takes weeks.

Brief's process is national. E-Judges are assigned based on the dispute's jurisdiction and subject matter. You file one claim, regardless of where the borrower is located. Brief handles the assignment. You don't need a network of local counsel.

Brief operates in all 50 U.S. states and territories. One platform. No local counsel required.

One clause addition. Portfolio-wide coverage.

loan-agreement-clause.txt
ARBITRATION OF DISPUTES Any dispute, controversy, or claim arising out of or relating to this Agreement, including any dispute regarding the performance, interpretation, or breach thereof, shall be resolved exclusively by binding arbitration administered by Brief (thinkbrief.com) pursuant to its Arbitration Rules, which are incorporated herein by reference. Arbitration shall be conducted electronically. The arbitrator's award shall be final and binding and may be enforced in any court of competent jurisdiction.

Questions lenders ask.

Brief provides product-specific clause language. You can use one master clause that covers all products under a framework agreement, or product-specific language in each agreement type. Your legal team can choose the approach that fits your documentation structure.
Brief handles the contractual dispute and the monetary claim. Lien enforcement and repossession rights are separate legal processes outside Brief's scope. Brief can help you get a binding determination on the breach and damages. Collateral enforcement follows through the applicable lien law.
Yes, if the guarantor agreement includes the Brief arbitration clause or references the primary agreement's dispute resolution terms. Coordinate with your legal counsel on guarantor clause language.
Active bankruptcy proceedings trigger the automatic stay, which pauses collection actions including arbitration. Brief's process is paused by an automatic stay like any other dispute resolution mechanism. This is a standard limitation, not specific to Brief.
Brief handles contractual and monetary disputes. If fraud is alleged as a defense to repayment, the E-Judge evaluates the defense in the context of the dispute. Brief does not handle standalone fraud claims as primary causes of action.
Lending disputes live in documents: the loan agreement, payment schedule, default notice, outstanding balance. There's no testimony to give, no hearing to attend. The E-Judge reviews the documents and decides. For lending disputes, this is the right tool, not a limitation.

Your next default isn't a surprise. Your response to it should be.

Alternative lending is a volume business. Defaults are a statistical certainty. What isn't certain is what you do about them. Add Brief to your agreements now, before the next default file lands on your desk.

Request a Demo → Get Free Clause

No upfront fees. Works across all lending product types. Trusted by Ironwood Finance.

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