Essay On Alternative Dispute Resolution

Arbitration is the submission of a disputed matter to an impartial person (the arbitrator) for decision. Arbitration is typically an out-of-court method for resolving a dispute. The arbitrator controls the process, will listen to both sides and make a decision. Like a trial, only one side will prevail. Unlike a trial, appeal rights are limited.

What is the relationship between the costs of arbitration and the likelihood of parties negotiating their own settlement?

Although the arbitrator’s final awards are legally binding, an unhappy party of arbitration may still go to court under certain circumstances.  As mentioned by Fallon & McConnell, “unless one party protests that there was a gross injustice, collusion, or fraud, arbitration that is specified by a contract can be converted into a legal judgment.  This requires a petition to the appropriate court” (n.d., p. 388).  As expected, this can become costly for the person who is seeking to appeal.

Arbitration is a method to submit a resolution in an arbitral, rather than a judicial forum. For non-labor issues, arbitration can be a less expensive solution. One example is The Home Owners ' Warranty program. A program which aimed to resolve disputes between homeowners and builders. The program was designed between the Home Owners ' Warranty programs of the National Association of Home Builders. This program started in 1973 as a method of formally resolving disputes through arbitration. The program provided a warranty program, using mediation, and arbitration to resolve differences. Before the warranty program was created, the National Association of Home Builders came to the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service for advice and assistance on dealing with homeowner disputes. Over the years, the program has expanded across the country through the Magnuson-Moss Bill, assisting the Federal Trade Commission on issuing rules on warranty’s and guaranties. The arbitration occurs while looking at the evidence of a dispute objectively for the best solutions (Barrett, 1985, p. 32).

Kolkey, D. M., Chernick, R., & Neal, B. R. (2012). Practitioners handbook on international arbitration and mediation (3rd ed.). Huntington: JurisNet.

After carefully considering the situation in both plaintiff (Eunice) and defendant (RFYL), arbitration should be an effective Alternative Dispute Resolution in

He has been in a dispute with Citibank for six years. What began as an overdraft fee in his checking account has turned into a nightmare that has cost him $100,000 thus far. He has had to postpone his wedding and he watched his credit score plummet from 700 to 500. Dempsey expects to spend thousands more as he moves into “round two”. He received a favorable ruling from the arbitrator but Citibank has appealed that decision. The original amount of the dispute is less than $150.00. The Financial Services Industry describes arbitration as a “prompt and inexpensive” way of resolving issues, but it seems only companies with deep pockets and nothing but time would see it that way. Mr. Dempsey estimates he has spent 1,000 hours spanning six months on his case. He says that Citibank objected to four arbitrators in a row, taking seven months to settle on one. They filed motions to dismiss the case and each time they filed something, he had to respond, paying filing fees each time. He claims Citibank would not correct mistakes regarding reporting to the credit bureaus. To the average consumer, it is neither prompt nor inexpensive to drag out the process of agreeing on an arbitrator for seven months. When Dempsey received the decision in his favor, he was awarded $20,500 in actual/punitive damages and $30,000 in attorney fees. Since Citibank is appealing that decision, those numbers are likely to

There is less hostility involved and it is flexible. The Arbitration process is a simpler set of rules and procedures and it is private. However, this process also has limits in the recourse for an employee to take and the employer could have an uneven and unfair advantage. Moreover, the case of Nino v. The Jewelry Exchange proved that when “ contracts are unconscionable when the process of contract formation essentially involves a “take-it or leave-it” offer of an agreement drafted by a ore powerful party (a “contract of adhesion) and when the contents of the agreement unreasonably favor the more powerful party. (Walsh

Arbitration has existed in America for centuries. The Native American Indian tribes were believed to have used arbitral process to settle disputes between the tribe and those outside the tribe. “Long before the white man ever arrived in what is now the United States early Native American tribes used arbitration as not only a means to resolve disputes within the tribe but also as a means to resolve disputes between different tribes”. (laborstudies and research p.2). The concept arbitration with no doubt extended to the America from the European continent, largely from England, after she colonizing America. Arbitration among merchants were common, since it proved more efficient and effective that the courts during that period. The first US

It is also important to consider that similar to court awards, arbitrators can burden the losing party with the costs of the arbitration.

Procedural arbitrability issues concern whether the parties have complied with the terms of an arbitration provision, and are presumptively handled by arbitrators. These issues include whether prerequisites such as time limits, notice, laches, estoppel, and other conditions precedent to an obligation to arbitrate have been met, as well as allegations of waiver, delay, or a like defense to

Nevertheless, certain categories of ADR have been named and understood to involve the use of particular means and methods to produce the desired end result. These procedures include: negotiation, mediation, arbitration, med-arb, early neutral evaluation, settlement conference and conciliation to name a few. However this essay will concentrate on mediation as a form of alternative dispute resolution.

     Alternative Dispute Resolution or ADR refers to a number of various processes that can be used to resolve legal disputes other than by litigation. Recently, methods of dispute resolution which focus on arbitration, mediation and negotiation as an alternative to adjudication have gained notoriety. This notoriety may have been caused by the public perception that ADR methods are less expensive, more efficient, and more satisfactory than the normal traditional course of litigation. The goals of establishing these processes to resolve disputes as an alternative to more formal legal processes include: 1) to make the regular court system more efficient, less costly and more responsive to the needs of the litigants;

Arbitration is legal technique used to resolve any disputes outside of the courts. Arbitration allows for speedy and cheap resolution of any disputes, the parties involved in a dispute agree to appoint a third person (arbitrator) who will hear their testimonies, and look into the evidence they provide. The arbitrator's decision cannot be challenged in a law court as it is considered final and the parties involved have to accept the decision (Brams & Merrill, 1986). There are only very limited circumstances where the decision of an arbitrator can be challenged, and this is mostly if there can be proof from one of the parties showing that the arbitrator was biased in their decision or ruling. The chosen arbitrator will be an experienced person in the area of the dispute.

International commercial arbitration has evolved, primarily, against the background of two unifying international traditions: the private international legal tradition, directed at the harmonization of laws; and the public international law tradition, committed to reducing global barriers to trade. International Commercial arbitration is the most widely used tool for resolution of trade or commercial disputes. The effort should be made to tackle the problems which will benefit commercial transaction activities. Most of the domestic courts were very slow in dealing with Arbitration cases. Therefore, parties now resort to Arbitration in order to avoid lengthy and complex litigation procedure.