Want to save some serious time and money? Place mediation and arbitration clauses in your business contracts and agreements.
Let’s face it – disputes and litigation happen. Our court system is extremely slow, inflexible, impersonal, adversarial, expensive, and unpredictable.
Maybe you’ve heard bad things about mediation and arbitration, but take a look at the facts:
- For more than half a century there has been steadily growing acceptance of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) – primarily mediation and arbitration.1
- Virtually all companies that use ADR report saving time and money, and enjoy more control over their disputes.1
- Growing acceptance of ADR is driven by growing sensitivity to the importance of preserving valuable business relationships (an advantage of ADR) and increasing determination to steer clear of costly litigation when dealing with business disputes.1
- A stream of evidence suggests there is real business value in the rapid, comparatively inexpensive and easily accessible alternative to the judicial system that is ADR – primarily mediation and arbitration.1, 2
- “Dispute wise” companies overwhelmingly prefer ADR over litigation.1, 2
If you have a bias against alternative dispute resolution, including mediation and arbitration, we encourage you to take a closer look. Read this issue of The Business Owner. Using ADR is easy: just include an ADR clause in your business agreements and/or attempt to get parties you are in dispute with to agree to use ADR instead of the court system. This issue of The Business Owner will help you learn how to do both.
1 Dispute-Wise Business Management: Improving Economic and Non-Economic Outcomes in Managing Business Conflicts. An American Arbitration Association-Sponsored Research Study.
1 The Appropriate Resolution of Corporate Disputes: A Report on the Growing Use of ADR by U.S. Corporations. David B. Lopsky and Ronald L. Seeber.
This article originally appeared in The Business Owner Journal, the periodical of choice for owners of small and midsize private businesses. All rights reserved, D.L. Perkins LLC. © 2012.
This publication is intended to provide general information on the subject matters covered. It is sold and distributed with the understanding that neither the publisher nor any distributor or advertiser is engaged in providing legal, tax, insurance, investment or other professional advice. The advice of a qualified professional should be sought before any reader applies a concept presented herein to his or her particular situation or business.
D.L. Perkins, LLC is solely responsible for this content.
