ABCs of Personal Injury Series - What is an Arbitration?

Jim describes what an arbitration is and how it can help to expedite your case resolution.
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Transcription:
Good afternoon. My name is Jim Leonick from Leonick Law in Commack, New York. Today that I'm recording this is Election Day and one of the things I was thinking about today, besides the election, is the court process. So I thought today would be a good day to speak about an aspect of an out-of-court process that relates to court cases. I handle many personal injury accident cases. I've done that for over 30 years so I have a lot of experience with this topic, which is arbitration. So a lot of people are not sure what arbitration is. So I'm going to explain a little bit about that and give you an overview. Now, the court process that we're... that we have in our country — that we're lucky to have — allows us to have our day in court. So if you have a grievance, if you have a disagreement with someone, if you are seeking compensation for something, you have the opportunity to go to court and to seek a resolution of that. One of the downsides of going to court is that it takes a long time for that to happen. It also could be costly, especially if you have to go to trial. Bringing the expert witnesses can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Serving subpoenas for records and bringing witnesses in could be costly, and the whole process is time consuming. It may take years, anywhere between three and five years after an accident, to be able to get your case to a point where it's going to trial. And that's suitable for some cases but not all cases. So arbitrations and alternatives. So what is arbitration? Arbitration is an out-of-court process, a private process where a private company is scheduling an arbitration proceeding, which is a mini trial. It typically occurs in an office setting if it's done in person. These days with Covid, it's being done by video as well. And everyone can appear by video and you can still have an arbitration. The arbitrator could be in one location. The witnesses, the attorneys could be in different locations, and we could still get the proceeding done. So some pluses and minuses with arbitration or mediation — mediation is another type of out-of-court process. Big difference between the two is that arbitration is binding. Mediation is not. Mediation is essentially a settlement conference. An arbitration can be liability and damages. You can arbitrate just about any type of case. My background is in accident cases in particular. Some of the pluses to go in an arbitration is that you get a binding result. It's cost effective. It's expedient. You work at what's called a high-low agreement, where, on the downside, if the arbitrator decides against you, you have a minimum that you would get. And on the upside, you would have a maximum that you couldn't get above. It's easy to schedule, and you have some choice in who the arbitrator would be. Negatives: it's a binding result. If you're not happy with the result, then you might not be happy... it's binding. Can't appeal it to anyone because it is an out-of-court private process. You are giving up your day in court. That's a negative. It's not appealable, and your recovery is somewhat limited because it's capped by the high-low agreement. Arbitrations are handled similar to a trial except most of the evidence is submitted in writing. You still get to testify, there's still cross examination, and then ultimately, the arbitrator makes a decision roughly 30 days after the arbitration is completed. And the important thing is that arbitration is a great alternative to the traditional trial and it can speed up your end result. I've handled hundreds of arbitration cases, and I'd be happy to handle yours too. Jim Leonick from Leonick Law. Thanks for listening.