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 is one drawback to arbitration. There are no guarantees that arbitration will be a fair process. Once a decision is rendered in a binding arbitration, the parties are generally stuck with that decision. Without the right to appeal, there is always the risk of being subject to the whims and prejudices of the arbitrator. Overall, this is probably the biggest drawback to the arbitration process.