By Patricia H. Thompson, FCIArb Arbitration provides a toolbox of dispute resolution options that are quicker, more targeted, and less expensive than litigation. However, formal and informal surveys reveal that one important component of this toolbox is unknown or misunderstood by corporate and outside counsel: the parties’ contractual right to appeal the final award, “on …
The excitement and joy of building a new home can quickly be overshadowed by a construction lien, or as it is more commonly known, a mechanic’s lien. Construction liens exist because it guarantees that a contractor will be paid for the work and materials that they put into a home or building. It allows a …
When arbitration is all said and done, there is always going to be a party who feels like they lost the arbitration. This party will often need to consider what happens when they lose and whether there is anything they can do to contest the award. Arbitration is often the end of the road because …
Legal spending by corporations will almost certainly continue to tighten in 2022. The days of unlimited corporate legal budgets have been gone for some time, as companies have worked to rein in their legal spending in the face of skyrocketing costs. These efforts have taken many forms. The key to many of the cost-cutting measures …
As practitioners of alternative dispute resolution, we compare our methods to litigation, often without pausing to describe what it means to litigate a dispute. Litigation is often the alternative to dispute resolution because it is the default forum to resolve a dispute in the United States and many places around the world. It is what …
Is online divorce mediation effective? Let’s take a look. This is just not Joe’s week. His wife Janice is out of state with the kids on a trip to visit her parents. He stayed behind to catch up at work. Somehow, that had been the wrong choice. It led to a huge argument before they …
When bringing a lawsuit, the parties may need the term locus standi clarified. The term is thrown around in a legal context often, but the definition is rarely discussed outside of first-year law school classes except by the occasional legal opinion that deals with the concept. Yet having locus standi is the foundation of bringing …
Well, you’re fed up with waiting. You’re finally ready to file that breach of contract suit against what used to be your best customer. They have been stringing you along, but you have had it. Or maybe you just got a nasty letter in the mail telling you the people who bought your house weren’t …
It’s been said that “not to decide is to decide.” But unless there is only one possible result of inaction, not making a decision surrenders to chaos. Indecision perpetrates the status quo only where a situation is static, which is not often the case. Where conflict is ongoing, it will continue unless parties become exhausted, …
Conciliation is a word that is often used in alternative dispute resolution forums as an attitude or skill to possess when attempting to settle a dispute through alternative forms of resolution, but the process of conciliation stands on its own as a form of alternative dispute resolution. Conciliation is a method of dispute resolution that …