Even in the absence of any law or contract requiring ADR, more and more parties are proposing to the other side that they jointly submit the case voluntarily to arbitration or mediation. Some of the companies that provide arbitrators or mediators to handle the ADR have grown quite quickly in the last decade. The ins and outs of arbitration Arbitration, which usually looks a lot like a court trial, comes in various forms. One variation of that is in baseball arbitrations, where the arrangement is usually that the parties will let the arbitrator decide on a dollar amount for the baseball player. That gives each party a chance to go to arbitration on the disputed range of figures, without totally risking the previously-negotiated numbers.
Arbitration can be by one person or by several.
Most arbitrations involve three arbitrators, with each party picking one arbitrator, and with the two arbitrators picking a third. However, this format is not necessarily required. Although arbitration has recently become a big growth area, it has been around for many years. The Federal Arbitration Act also has been around for many years, and the Uniform Arbitration Act has been adopted by many state legislatures. In addition, it is not unusual for organizations to have arbitration provisions in their by-laws or other rules.