Arbitration News

Judicial Council Approves Ethics Standards for Arbitrators

San Francisco—At a public meeting here today, the Judicial Council of California adopted comprehensive ethics standards for contractual arbitrators in California. Arbitration is an alternative method of dispute resolution held outside the traditional court system.

The new rules, the first of their kind in the country, are minimum standards of conduct for arbitrators that are designed to protect the integrity and fairness of the arbitration process.  The standards were developed by the legal staff of the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) in conjunction with the 19-member Judicial Council Blue Ribbon Panel of Experts on Arbitrator Ethics, appointed by Chief Justice Ronald M. George.

As required by Senate Bill 475 (Escutia, D-Whittier), enacted last year, most of the standards will take effect July 1, 2002. The Judicial Council approved a July 1, 2003 effective date for Standard 7 (b)(12) relating to disclosure of provider rganizations’ relationships in consumer arbitrations due to the time needed to implement the requirement and related pending legislation.

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	Did You Know?
	There are many advantages to arbitration. Parties often seek to resolve their disputes through arbitration because of a number of perceived potential advantages over judicial proceedings. Some advantages include, but are not limited to: (1) when the subject matter of the dispute is highly technical, arbitrators with an appropriate degree of expertise can be appointed, (2) arbitration is often faster and cheaper than litigation in court, (3) arbitral process enjoys a greater degree of flexibility than courts, and (4) arbitration awards are generally easier to enforce abroad than court judgments.