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Greg Levine
Greg Levine

Posted on AI-assisted

Adding dispute resolution to your billing flow with a REST API

#webdev #api #startup #saas

Disclosure: I'm Greg, COO at Arbitration.Inc. This is about our API, so I'm biased. I'd like feedback from people who build billing and collections features.

Many vertical SaaS products (HOA, gym, field service, subscription billing) have customers whose contracts already include arbitration clauses. Those clauses almost never get used. The unpaid balances are too small for collections or small claims to be worth the effort, so the money gets written off.

We built the arbitration process as a REST API so a platform can put "File a dispute" next to an overdue invoice. Here's the flow.

1. Create a case 

curl -X POST https://api.arb.inc/cases/create \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json"
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The response returns a case ID you use for everything else.

2. File the claim 

curl -X POST https://api.arb.inc/filings/documents/create \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "caseID": "2026-10-00001",
    "documentID": "statementOfClaim",
    "fields": {
      "claimantName": "Example Fitness LLC",
      "respondentName": "Jane Doe",
      "respondentAddress": "123 Main St",
      "basisForArbitration": "Membership agreement, Section 12",
      "statementOfFacts": "Dues unpaid for 60 days",
      "reliefRequested": "Payment of $180.00"
    }
  }'
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(The values above are made up for illustration.)

3. Evidence, notice, and webhooks

  • POST /evidence/uploads/create attaches documents or photos to the case.
  • POST /service-of-notice/mailings/create sends the notice by mail, alongside email.
  • Webhooks fire when a case changes phase (for example, from filing to response), so your UI can show status without polling.

There's an OpenAPI 3.0 spec for generating clients. Docs are at docs.arb.inc.

Pricing and the platform model

Pricing is public: $99 for a single case, $50 per case in a 50-case pack, and $10 per case in a 1,000-case pack. A platform can buy in bulk, set what its own customers pay, and keep the margin.

Caveats

  • The process is AI-assisted, and under California law these arbitrations may not be binding for California residents.
  • An arbitration award can be confirmed by a court, which turns it into a judgment, but that depends on a valid agreement to arbitrate. If a customer's contract has no arbitration clause, this doesn't apply.

What I'd like to know

If you've built billing or collections features:

  1. Would your customers use something like this, or is unpaid-balance recovery already well handled?
  2. What would stop you from integrating it?
  3. Would you sell it as an add-on or fold it into your plans?

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