Can Consumers of Private Dispute Resolution Services Obtain Real Review by the Public Courts?
Current times have widely been described as the age of the consumer. Companies often compete to provide services that consumers want when and how we as consumers want them. Businesses are significant consumers of the services provided by the courts and by private ADR service providers. ADR service providers, such as the American Arbitration Association, JAMS and ADR Services, are very flexible in providing procedures consistent with the parties’ needs. California courts have exhibited some significant commitment to attempting to provide the services needed by businesses to resolve their disputes by, for example, creating the Complex Case program that uses judges and procedural methods designed to address some of the unique characteristics of complex business disputes. See California Rules of Court, Rules 1800 et seq. But, thus far, there has been some resistance to allowing businesses to select some aspects of the public court system while opting out of others. Strong evidence suggests
