Arbitration Trends 2014

A Today’s General Counsel survey captured trends and attitudes toward arbitration among in-house attorneys. The primary reasons respondents gave for choosing arbitration over litigation were that it was required by contract, it preserved confidentiality and it was less costly. Asked if they thought arbitration generally turned out to be a better solution than litigation, 42 percent called it a toss-up. They liked the less formal setting and the chance to avoid unfavorable courts and runaway juries, but they didn’t like what they viewed as the compromise verdicts that arbitrators sometimes render. In follow-up interviews, some surprising comments.