Tag Archives: Kevin Koons

Justice Hart of the Arkansas Supreme Court recently wrote a scathing dissent on the proliferation of arbitration to settle disputes. You can find a story summarizing the dissent here and the full dissent here. Whether you favor or disfavor the use of arbitration, Justice Hart raises a number of points that attorneys and clients should consider before agreeing to arbitration as a method of dispute resolution. She notes that arbitration is not often the cost saving resolution touted. She is undoubtedly correct that paying an arbitrator (or panel) is significantly more expensive than the cost of a court where a litigant is only responsible for the filing fee and court costs.  Whether the total cost of arbitration is cheaper or more expensive than traditional litigation depends on the nature of the matter and the scope of discovery undertaken.  Certainly if extensive discovery occurs in traditional litigation but an arbitration panel would have limited the scope of discovery, then you may spend less money through the course of the decision making process. But that begs the question, do you need the discovery?  If your case hinges on discovery, are you willing to risk that discovery may be limited by the panel?  Further, if you require discovery from a nonparty in traditional litigation, it can generally be compelled through issuance of a subpoena with the discovery. Virtually no additional steps are required. In arbitration however, the panel does not have the power to compel compliance with a non-party discovery request.  Consequently, in order to compel a response, a…