Arbitrators and Accuracy

Abstract

An arbitrator's; primary duty remains the delivery of an accurate award, resting on a reasonably ascertainable picture of reality. Litigants wanting only quick or cheap solutions can roll dice, and have no need of lawyers. Evidentiary tools in arbitration should balance sensitivity towards cost and delay against the parties' interest in due process and correct decisions. If arbitration loses its moorings as a truth-seeking process, nostalgia for a golden age of simplicity will yield to a clarion call for reinvention of an adjudicatory process aimed at discovering what happened, finding relevant legal norms and properly construing contract language. Though not so jealous as to exclude all rivals, truth does insist on being first among equals.