Welcome to the Dispute Resolution Section
The Dispute Resolution Section is now the New York State Bar
Association's 24th Section. NYSBA members are invited and encouraged to
join.
Section status recognizes the critical importance of negotiation,
collaboration, mediation, neutral evaluation, arbitration and new and
hybrid forms of dispute resolution in all areas of legal practice. The
Section is a forum for improving these processes and the understanding
of dispute resolution alternatives, for enhancing the proficiency of
practitioners and neutrals and increasing the knowledge and availability
of party-selected solutions.
The Section will serve this mission by:
- Creating committees to explore and research developments in ethics,
substantive law, and legislative initiatives relating to our shared
interests
- Sponsoring publication of analysis and opinion on dispute resolution
processes
- Providing continuing legal education and training to practitioners
and neutrals
- Promoting relevant legislation
- Providing commentary on ethical issues affecting dispute
resolution
- Providing a venue for practitioners, law school faculty and
students, and dispute resolution providers to network, exchange ideas,
and to interact with other members of the Bar and to the public on
issues relating to dispute resolution.
To join the section, please e-mail your request to drs@nysba.org. If you would like to join
NYSBA, membership information is available here.
For more information on joining this Section, please download our brochure (PDF).
Section News and Articles of Interest
New!
From the New York Times:
Section Reports
Use of Discovery in Arbitration
Report:
The Dispute Resolution Section
has issued a Report addressing a challenge presented to the Section
by Immediate Past President Bernice K. Leber. The
challenge concerned the dilemma faced by parties using arbitration who
do not know in advance how discovery will be handled in their
case. To answer the challenge the Report contains Precepts to help
arbitrators handle discovery in domestic commercial cases in a manner
that reduces uncertainty and increases cost-effectiveness and fairness,
consistent with the expectations of the parties who selected the
arbitration process. The Report also includes Factors an
arbitrator should consider in determining the appropriate scope or
discovery in a particular arbitration. View the report here.
Arbitration Fairness Act
Report:
The Dispute Resolution Section
issued a report opposing many aspects of the Arbitration Fairness
Act. The bill was supported in the last Congress by leading senators and
over 100 members of the house; it would invalidate pre-dispute
arbitration agreements for consumers, employees and franchises
disputes and for disputes "arising
under any statute intended to protect civil rights or to regulate
contracts or transactions between parties of unequal bargaining
power."
Just imagine what that covers.
The statute further overturns for all arbitration, not just the
designated classes, the established division of authority between the
court and the arbitrator (separability and competence-competence). It
provides that:
"An issue as to whether this
chapter applies to an arbitration agreement shall be determined by
Federal law. Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, the validity
or enforceability of an agreement to arbitrate shall be determined by
the court, rather than the arbitrator, irrespective of whether the party
resisting arbitration challenges the arbitration agreement specifically
or in conjunction with other terms of the contract containing such
agreement"
Virtually every arbitration could end up in court and the 40 years of
precedents following the seminal Supreme Court decision in Prima
Paint woud be overruled.
The bill is likely to be reintroduced in Congress in the next month or
two. Please review the proposal here and
become involved in the issue.
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