Arbitration Agreement: Do I Want It?
You probably signed an arbitration agreement at your last doctor’s visit, when you signed up for your gym or yoga studio membership, or when you signed a listing agreement with your realtor. The ubiquity of these agreements makes it especially important for us to understand them as consumers, business owners, employers, and employees. What is an arbitration agreement? Arbitration is one of the alternative means of resolving disputes (alternative to filing a lawsuit that is). Thus, an arbitration agreement is an agreement to take disputes out of the court system to be decided by a private arbitrator (or a panel of arbitrators) usually following a different set of procedural rules than the court. People and companies choose to arbitrate for various reasons. The process is generally more streamlined and allows for a quicker resolution of disputes. It is often times cheaper than litigating in court, and the proceedings are typically not part of the public record. Lastly, the conventional wisdom is that you reduce the risk of a run-away-jury. Do you want to arbitrate? Whether agreeing to arbitrate potential disputes … Continue reading
Mediation – Anatomy of a Lawsuit Part VII
This series applies to California lawsuits only. For rules regarding your state’s civil litigation procedure, visit the website for your specific state’s judicial branch. This is a very broad overview. Multiple considerations must take place and detailed analysis goes into each step. To recap, we’ve discussed some considerations before filing a lawsuit such as What is the Deadline to File a Lawsuit and Where to File a Lawsuit. We’ve also discussed How to File a Lawsuit, Responding to a Lawsuit, and Discovery. Here’s a visual representation of what a lawsuit looks like. This article focuses on the phase within the blue circle. Although represented in the above flowchart as happening after the discovery phase, a case may go to mediation before a lawsuit is even filed or litigated (early or pre-litigation), at any other time, or may not go to mediation at all. It is an entirely an optional process aimed at settling the dispute before the parties spend the time and money to prepare for trial. However, if the parties are serious about settling a dispute, discovery gives each side a better sense of … Continue reading