Litigation or Arbitration: View from the Trenches

Abstract

In my business as president of a large consulting engineering firm, it was standard practice to avoid arbitration clauses in contracts. We routinely struck the clause from standard American Institute of Architects (AIA) agreements, and this seemed to be common practice among other architectural and engineering firms with which we did business. Now, I recognize that practice was likely because of a lack of understanding of the arbitration process. Here are a few of the issues that have changed my mind about the effectiveness of arbitration. Subsequently, I will discuss three conflicts resolved in litigation and court-ordered mediation that might have had different results had we had an arbitration clause in our contract.