SETTLING DISPUTES THE INEXPENSIVE WAY -- THROUGH ARBITRATION The traditional American way of settling disputes of any substance is through court proceedings. While many individuals still feel that being sued -- and in some cases, suing -- carries a stigma, most U.S. businessmen see the courtroom proceedings as nothing more than a necessary, and usually extremely expensive, evil. The result is that judges and juries, often totally unversed in the subject matter of a civil suit, are hearing everything from divorce cases to contractual controversies, to bodily damage suits. Attorneys are grossly over-committed, court schedules burgeoning with backlogged cases, judges harried, and jurors more often than not reluctantly impaneled. As a result, the only prognosis that a defendant and plaintiff can make with certainty is that, regardless of the merits of a case, litigation will be slow, costly, and often inequitable. There is, however, an alternate method of settling legal controversies and disputes. It is a considerably less expensive method than the traditional court trial; it is a method that not only has its roots in our common-law legal concept, but also has statutory recognition at both the federal and state level; and most importantly, it is effective. The method is arbitration. The use of arbitration is not new. It was practiced by the ancient Greeks and Romans, from whom we inherited many of our legal concepts. Throughout American history it has either been used or advocated. Abraham Lincoln, for example, advocated that lawyers should try to keep their clients out of the courtroom, and to illustrate the principle, he arbitrated a boundary dispute between two farmers. The concept of arbitration is well established in U.S. labor disputes; and a well-known U. S. athlete has recently been released from his contract through an arbiter's decision. State and federal statutes require that the courts recognize arbiter's decisions, and arbitration has been incorporated into international treaties. The statutes require that awards under arbitration be given the force of court judgments, and, if the rules of arbitration are adhered to (both parties must agree to the arbiter's use, and must agree to abide by his decision), the case cannot be re-examined on its merits or on the basis upon which the arbiter reached his decision. Businessmen are not the only ones who can benefit from arbitration. Even though the no-fault divorce has done much to remove the soap opera atmosphere from the divorce proceedings, arbitration would be less expensive and equally effective, particularly when substantial amounts of property are involved. In principle, any kind of contract -- including separation agreements, contracts of purchase and sale, leases, etc., may contain a clause stipulating that disputes may be resolved through arbitration. If a contract contains this clause, the use of arbitration cannot be circumvented unless both parties subsequently agree to it, and the courts will require that the case be arbitrated rather than going to trial. Another merit of arbitration is the privacy it allows. The arbiter hears the case in the presence of the principals, with judge, jury, spectators and/or newspaper reporters excluded. Time-consuming legal maneuvers and issue-clouding rhetoric by over-ambitious attorneys are eliminated, with the result that a case in arbitration moves much more quickly to its conclusion. Moreover, there will be no rules of court that could conceivably keep relevant information out of the case, a fact which should do much to assure equity. Even if the original contract does not contain an arbitration clause, it can be incorporated into the document upon the agreement of the parties at a later date; and, even after controversy has arisen, the principals may agree to arbitration rather than going to court. As an advocate of arbitration has said, "Even when the parties in a dispute can't agree on anything else, the idea of arbitration may sound good to them." Arbitration was criticized in early English history, because it "ousted the courts of their jurisdiction." But today, any businessman who has been to court has learned that most business matters do not really belong under the jurisdiction of a court. While business obligations and commitments accumulate at a steady rate, the court grinds out decisions with mind- numbing slowness -- especially in cases that require some expert knowledge in a business matter. Most experts now agree with former United States Chief Justice Harlan F. Stone, who said, "(business disputes) can be better determined by an arbiter with training and experience in a particular trade or business than by a judge or jury who have not had that training and experience." Arbitration is not a concept to simply be talked about and pointed to as an idealistic but impractical dream, but is currently a reality, in the form of the American Arbitration Association, which has been in the business of arbitrating disputes for more than 50 years. Recent AAA statistics show that of 35,000 cases handled, 14,000 involved automobile accidents, 13,000 involved labor-management disputes, and 4,000 involved contract disputes between businessmen. The AAA also handled cases involving consumer problems, medical malpractice claims, and family/personal disputes. Here's how the AAA operates: It provides the parties in dispute with a list of arbiters, from which each party may select arbiters of his choice. Each party is given seven days to study the list, eliminate unwanted names, and indicate preferences in the remaining names, through a numbering system. If the parties cannot thus agree on an arbiter, the AAA will submit them another list. If the second list does not elicit a mutual choice, the AAA will then appoint an arbiter -- being sure, however, not to appoint one whose name was eliminated from the list. The parties are then given the choice of being represented by a lawyer, or proceeding without a lawyer (the officers of a corporation may represent their company in arbitration, but may not do so in a court trial). The fees of the AAA for this service are a percentage of the total amount in dispute, beginning at 3% for the first $10,000.00, and declining as the amount increases. Stenographic records of the arbitration will be kept only if requested by the parties, who must then bear the cost of it. The arbiter will render a written and signed decision, usually within 30 days. The arbiter's decision is final and cannot be appealed. While U. S. courts continue to be glutted with civil cases, and experts mull ways of expediting the overburden of cases through these halls of justice, arbitration as a fast and efficient method of serving civil equity remains comparatively unpublicized. But it is available, and can and should be used by more Americans.