Integrity is vital to Arbitrators and Mediators   by Aaron Dinkle

in Law    (submitted 2011-11-17)

Being as you are looking to hire an arbitrator or mediator to assist you in resolving a dispute, you have the power to choose someone based on important prerequisites. One fact that should be a definite prerequisite is integrity. This article will discuss some of the reasons that only someone with integrity can be a good ADR professional.

Some traits which are deal breakers are chauvinism, racism… basically and type of prejudice. An ADR provider with too many preconceived notions about ethnic groups or gender categories will automatically assume that accusations which jive with their prejudice are true, and accusations which don't jive with their prejudice they will assume to be false. That's not a good way to go into a hearing.

Also, ADR professionals cannot allow themselves to be influenced by the transfer of currency from one individual to another, namely their paycheck. As opposed to a court judge, who gets his or her paycheck from the court system, the ADR firm is paid directly from the people who have come to solve disputes. That means that parties who are "on trial," so to speak, are also clientele. This fact should not, and cannot sway the considerations of an arbitrator or mediator.

Companies who regularly need to use an ADR professional's services will often return to the same ADR agency which they have used in the past. Obviously this situation is a little bit sticky. The ADR professional needs not see the company as a "return customer," nor as a "prospective future client." If an arbitrator, or even a mediator, thinks in this regard than the pay that they receive is arguably comparable to a bribe.

I actually heard a true story which perfectly illustrates the need to search for honesty and integrity for any type of service provider. A few years ago, when a certain attorney was traveling as part of work for a client, the attorney flew from the West Coast to the East Coast. Being as it may, there is a time difference due to the change from one time zone to the other. The lawyer claimed that he should be paid for "extra" hours due to the change in time zone. Although I'm sure that he was able to argue that case pretty well, being as he is a lawyer, it's a shame that he would try. Anyhow, that's the kind of dude that you don't want to hire.

Honesty and Integrity are important ingredients to any ADR recipe.

About the Author

Aaron has written about alternative dispute resolution, business, and trading.