NCPA


Policy Issues

NCPA Publications

Both Sides

Editorial Opinions

Audio/Visual


NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS
HOME / DONATE / ONE LEVEL UP / ABOUT NCPA / CONTACT US
Binding Arbitration Rising
Daily Policy Digest

Legal Issues / Courts

Monday, July 15, 2002
Until a decade ago, most arbitrations pitted two businesses against each other in a contract dispute. Then arbitration spread to disagreements between companies and their customers and employees.

Now private, third party adjudicators are being used to resolve many other types of claims -- including personal injuries.

  • The American Arbitration Association -- the only arbitration firm whose finances are available to the public because it's a nonprofit organization --administered more than 218,000 cases in 2001, a 10 percent increase from 2000 and the seventh year that its caseload increased.
  • Association officials say less than 2 percent of the cases were consumer- or employee-related; more than a third were no-fault auto insurance cases in New York, New Jersey and Minnesota.
Increasingly, businesses are putting language in their contracts requiring that all future disputes be handled by a third-party arbitration firm -- usually one selected by the company. Disputes necessitating a court trial often take two to three years -- while arbitration can resolve a dispute in a few months.

Source: Caroline E. Mayer, "No Suits Allowed," Washington Post, July 14, 2002.

For text
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/
articles/A64365-2002Jul13.html

For more on Courts
http://www.ncpa.org/iss/leg
12770 Coit Rd., Suite 800 - Dallas, TX 75251-1339 - 972/386-6272 - Fax 972/386-0924
601 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Suite 900 South Building - Washington, DC 20004 - 202/220-3082 - Fax 202/220-3096
Copyright © 2002 National Center for Policy Analysis - All rights reserved.