Originally from American Review of International Arbitration - ARIA

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Courts, commentators and arbitration organizations have observed that the
hallmark of arbitration is that it is “a speedy, efficient, and less expensive
alternative to court litigation.”1 Business users complain that arbitration is no
longer faster and cheaper than litigation.2 In fact, it has taken on many of the
time-consuming and negative characteristics of litigation – including expensive
discovery, motion practice and tactical delaying stratagems – as practiced
especially in the United States.3 One commentator has observed that “[b]y the
beginning of the twenty-first century . . . it was common to speak of U.S. business
arbitration in terms similar to civil litigation – ‘judicialized,’ formal, costly, timeconsuming,
and subject to hardball advocacy.”4
Arbitration organizations have taken notice. At the Orlando AAA Neutrals
Conference held on November 5, 2010, William Slate, President and CEO of the
American Arbitration Association, in his keynote address entitled All Hands on
Deck, stated: “Indeed, ‘cost and delay’ as an issue is the single biggest challenge