What is arbitration? Is it better than normal court proceedings? Is it not beneficial to the clients? What arbitration actually is and what are the things that you should know during arbitration.
Arbitration is a method in which a disagreement is referred, by agreement between the partners, to one or more arbitrators who provide a binding ruling on the issue. Arbitration is a private dispute settlement method that the parties choose over going to court.
In this article, I will be talking about what are the things that you should know when it comes to arbitration in order to avoid confusion with court proceedings.
The first one is that an arbitration proceeding does not require any judge but it has an arbitrator to handle the arbitration.
Depending on the arbitral proceedings or the rules of arbitration that are used, the arbitral tribunal may consist of a single arbitrator or an odd number of arbitrators, such as three or five. For court proceedings, the judge hearing your case is chosen at random and you cannot choose or put pre-conditions on the judge’s credentials. Unlike court proceedings, for arbitration parties are allowed to define the skills and competence necessary for arbitration — for example, if it is a medical dispute, parties may agree that any arbitrator selected should have medical qualifications or a minimum number of years of healthcare industry experience.
Other than that, in comparison to court proceedings, arbitration is usually more confidential.
Court procedures can be made public: certain court decisions are published, court papers can be accessed by the public via an online file search, and trials are typically held in “open court” (which means any member of the public can observe the proceedings). Arbitration, on the other hand, is a private process that only includes the parties mentioned. The WIPO Rules expressly guarantee the confidentiality of the arbitration’s existence, any exposures made during the proceeding, and the verdict.
Next, similar to court judgment, arbitration awards are also final.
An “award” is the decision of the arbitral tribunal on the merits of the claim. The decision is final and only can be changed under certain circumstances that are allowed. Once registered with the High Court, an arbitration award (even if acquired outside of Malaysia) can be enforced like a court decision. In some situations, a Malaysian arbitral ruling may be enforced in other nations as well.
In addition, arbitration should be consensual.
Arbitration can only proceed if both parties agree with it. In the event of future contract problems, the parties include an arbitration clause in the convenient form. A submission settlement can be used to send an existing dispute resolution process. There are also a lot of arbitration institutes that you can choose from such as AIAC and SIAC.
Lastly, arbitration is considered as different to court proceedings due to its informality.
Not that arbitration is not formal at all, but it is less formal than being in a court. The parties are not required to cope with the procedures and complexities of a judicial proceeding such as courtroom etiquette. Arbitration can take place anywhere such as at one party’s office or meeting rooms that can be rented from any places that you are comfortable with. …