Originally from:
AAA Handbook on Arbitration Practice - Hardcover
AAA Handbook on Arbitration Practice - Electronic
Preview Page from Chapter 10
Arbitration has been billed as the cost-effective, expeditious alternative to commercial litigation. It has, however, to a large extent, become a costly, dilatory and unpredictable melding of litigation and arbitration, primarily due to the parties’ representatives who are responsible for grafting the implements of litigation onto the much simpler system of arbitration. Regrettably, arbitrators are often their “aiders and abettors” when they permit attorneys to wrest control of the process. Such arbitrators are fearful that the courts, when reviewing their conduct, will vacate their awards. That fear is unfounded and this chapter will show you why that is so. The consequence of arbitrators relinquishing responsibility for managing the arbitration process is twofold: first, it will lead constituents of arbitration—i.e., businesses and attorneys—to lose respect for the process. Second, it will cause those arbitrators to suffer a loss of income (not surprisingly), since users of the process want an efficient arbitration and will no longer select them. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a backbone transplant to my fellow arbitrators, to endow them with the courage to...
David E. Robbins has been an AAA arbitrator for 25 years and is a partner in Kaufmann, Gildin Robbins & Oppenheim LLP, in New York City, where he specializes in commercial arbitration, mediation, litigation and disciplinary proceedings before regulatory authorities. Previously, he served as special deputy attorney general of New York State and was director of the compliance, arbitration and disciplinary hearings departments at the American Stock Exchange. The author of the Securities Arbitration Procedure Manual (5th ed., 2009, Matthew Bender/Lexis/Nexis), he also writes the annual "Practice Commentary" in Article 23-A of the New York General Business Law for McKinney’s Consolidated Laws of New York. In addition, he chaired 23 Practising Law Institute annual CLE programs on securities arbitration and mediation.
