Arbitration?

[heyitsme728]

Does anyone know what this means?

In lay mans terms?

[monkeybug]

In general, arbitration is a process where legal disputes are settled outside of a courtroom. Decisions made in arbitration are usually binding. If you buy a car, you are probably agreeing (somewhere in all the reams of paper you sign) to be bound by arbitration should you have a dispute with the company at any point.

[Altra, BSN, RN]

You can google-search this term, using a clarifying phrase applicable to your homework/reading, that will give you good info.

[heyitsme728]

So..is this a good or bad thing? Is it better to have the dispute settled within a court or outside of a court?

[heyitsme728]

I looked online but it is too complicated to understand... I wanted to know if anyone had experience with this.

[monkeybug]

So..is this a good or bad thing? Is it better to have the dispute settled within a court or outside of a court?

A lot depends on who will be making the final decision. If the arbitration board is biased, it might be a bad thing.

What is the situation?

[heyitsme728]

There is none.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

People are often confused with mediation and arbitration. In mediation, the mediator is impartial and works with the two disagreeing parties to come to an agreement, a compromise. Mediation is not usually binding, meaning that the parties do not have to agree. Mediation is often part of divorce actions, just to get people to talk to each other.

An arbiter is supposed to be impartial and acts like a judge; many arbiters are, in fact, retired judges. S/he hears both sides and makes a decision. That decision is generally binding. Both parties have to agree that the arbitration will be binding. These arrangements are often embedded in the original contract between the two parties, whatever it was. One example that many people are familiar with is the professional athlete whose contract is up for renewal and the athlete and the team cannot come to an agreement. The player's union contract that covers all players allows for binding arbitration; the player's agent/atty shows up with stats showing how valuable the athlete is to the team and how athletes with similar stats have bigger salaries; the team counters with the fact that the athlete is showing lower stats than are put up by similar players in many recent contracts and woe is me, we have to live with a salary cap. The arbiter hears it all and decides what the salary will be.

There have been consumer cases where hidden deep in a credit card agreement, for example, there's a clause that says any dispute must be taken to binding arbitration and it just so happens that they all go to a fairly small group of arbiters, and whaddaya know, the consumer always loses, often because s/he doesn't even know about it. Read carefully.

[RLtinker, LPN]

It is legalese that basically means you waive the right have a claim heard in court by a judge or jury. Any claim you have is heard by third party called an arbitrator, which can award damages or perform other juridical type decision within reason. It is a standard part of many types contracts especially credit cards and cell phones and sometimes employment contracts. Whether they are good or bad depends on your point of view. But mostly the advantages are awarded to the company or employer. If you want a really detailed description of what arbitration is, it may help to check out these pages:

Article - Arbitration of Employment Disputes

What Is Employment Arbitration?

Arbitration - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia