The arbitration process has been in use around the world for hundreds of years. In essence, parties to a dispute agree to appoint an independent person (ideally an expert in the subject matter of the dispute) to gather information from all relevant sources in order to make a legally binding decision on the referred issues, to resolve the dispute.
Being an entirely private and confidential process, the parties and the arbitrator are free to discuss, design and agree the best possible way of achieving a quick, fair and-cost effective outcome.
Arbitration in Australia is governed by uniform State Arbitration Acts (2010/2011), supplemented by Arbitration Rules formulated by bodies such as the Resolution Institute, or by individual arbitrators, as procedural guidelines.
The key benefits of arbitration lie in its potential: (a) flexibility; (b) speed; (c) finality and (d) cost-effectiveness, especially in comparison to rigid, expensive, slow and institutionalised court processes.
Achieving these benefits requires the arbitrator, and the parties, to collaborate over the process to realise said benefits.
When the arbitrator is an expert on the subject matter of the dispute (eg: a builder or engineer for a construction dispute), who can also proactively manage the process in such a way as to achieve maximum efficiencies, arbitration is businesslike, efficient and very cost-effective.
Regrettably, some arbitrations have been conducted in a highly legalistic manner, where many of the unhelpful obfuscations that make litigation so incomprehensible and expensive are allowed to intrude. The inevitable result is a process that is little better than litigation, and the parties have to pay for the judge!
A good arbitration requires a robust process, managed by an arbitrator who really understand the issues in dispute; understands the needs and interests of the parties; and has the skill to guide the process to a speedy outcome.
Commencing an Arbitration process: quickly achieved by phone or written application to The Solutionist Group.