Two weeks before the date set for the merits hearing the attorney for one of the parties emails the Tribunal and states that he has been directed to appear for trial by the administrative judge of the County and therefore wants an adjournment to a later date. There are other attorneys in that office who have been working on the arbitration, but the attorney who emails you states that the client insists that he be the one to be lead counsel for the arbitration. The adversary counsel insists that the Tribunal not adjourn the hearing.  What would you do?

What are your thoughts?

In an ad-hoc arbitration, where each party names a wing arbitrator and the two wings are supposed to name an umpire, what procedural methodology for the selection of the umpire have you found to be the most effective?

What are your thoughts?

What is the appropriate balance between an arbitrator proactively managing a case and recognizing party autonomy? What do you see as the appropriate balance here?

What are your thoughts?

How should an arbitrator approach postponement requests? How should these matters be decided? Should the arbitrator paper her/his decision in this regard? How so? If the parties mutually agree on repeated postponements, how long should the arbitrator tolerate such requests?

What are your thoughts?

What steps can an arbitrator take in writing an Award to avoid an excessively long Award? Are there components of awards that are unnecessary or can be presented more succinctly? On the other hand, do the reasons that arbitrators write long awards outweigh the benefits of arbitrators striving to write shorter awards? Should Awards not exceed 50 pages or have no page limit?

What are your thoughts? 

Some arbitrators take extensive notes during hearings even if there is a court reporter. Do you find this to be necessary, a distraction? What are the best practices for taking notes during an arbitration hearing?

What are your thoughts?

To what extent do status conferences take place in your arbitration proceedings? How helpful are they? Do some deem them to be a waste of time and money? If the parties don't want status conferences, what should the arbitrator do?

What are your thoughts?

How should an arbitrator handle a disrespectful or non-compliant counsel?

What are your thoughts?

Do you see it as a problem when there is a significant difference in the hourly rates and/or higher amount of billing hours among Tribunal members on the same arbitration case? Does this have an impact on the process and how counsel and parties view arbitration in general? If you deem it to be a problem, what is the solution?

What are your thoughts?

During a pending arbitration matter, is it acceptable for the arbitrator overseeing the matter to ask one of the parties or counsel to serve as a reference for acceptance into an organization or institution (e.g. bar association or ADR provider membership)? If yes, what type of disclosures should the arbitrator, party or counsel make? If no, when is it acceptable, if at all, for an arbitrator to make such a request from one of the parties or counsel to a previous arbitration matter that he/she oversaw (i.e. months, one year, etc.)?

What are your thoughts?