Combining Mediation and Arbitration - Dispute Resolution Journal - Vol. 54, No. 4

Author(s):

Thomas J. Brewer

Lawrence R. Mills

Page Count:

8 pages

Published:

October, 1999

Author Detail:

Thomas J. Brewer is a partner in the Seattle and Alaska firm of Wickwire Greene Crosby Brewer & Seward. He has 25 years’ experience representing clients in judicial, agency, and ADR proceedings as a commercial litigator, and has also maintained an active practice as a neutral arbitrator and mediator of commercial and other cases for the past 15 years. He is a member of the AAA’s National Commercial Panel, and is also a member of the AAA’s Northwest Region Large Complex Case and Mediation Panels.

Lawrence R. Mills is the managing principal of the Seattle law firm Mills Meyers Swartling. For over 25 years, he has practiced business law and commercial litigation. During the past 15 years, he has devoted a significant portion of his practice to serving as a neutral dispute resolver in a wide variety of contexts. He is an AAA arbitrator and a memberof the AAA Mediation Panel in the Northwest Region. He has served as a neutral in “med-arb”
proceedings on numerous occasions.

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Description:

Originally from Dispute Resolution Journal

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Combining mediation and arbitration in sequence
can be a fair, efficient and cost-effective process
for resolving disputes. Hybrid "med-arb" proceedings
that seek to combine the virtues of mediation
and arbitration can offer real advantages to
clients, including reduced costs, certain resolution
of the dispute within a reasonable time, and
enhanced client control over the dispute resolution
process. Such combined "med-arb" proceedings
may also pose significant disadvantages for participating
clients, and important ethical issues for the
neutral, however, when the proceeding calls for the
mediation and the arbitration to be conducted by
the same person. This article reviews these issues.