Ten Ways to Improve Your Arbitration Clause

Companies can do better for themselves than the typical boilerplate in the arbitration provisions of their consumer and business contracts, according to attorneys Dawn M. Johnson and Abby L. Risner. “If a specific issue is not addressed in the arbitration provision,” they write, “it likely will be decided by the administering service’s rules, or by the arbitrator. All too often, this realization comes too late, in the midst of arbitration or when a party determines it wants to appeal an arbitrator’s decision.” In this Today’s General Counsel article, they detail ten ways these contracts can be improved, in such areas as the class action waiver, statutes of limitation, discovery and confidentiality.