What are some of the most common myths about arbitration?
Myth: “Arbitrators simply ‘split the baby,’ rather than award parties what they deserve, so why arbitrate?” Emphatically, this is not so. At best, this is historical artifact; most likely, it is a misconstruction (not surprising, as so many people confuse arbitration with mediation). Formal independent studies demonstrate conclusively that arbitrators rarely award in the 50% range or otherwise merely compromise between the arbitrating sides’ positions. Modern arbitrator training specifically warns against simply compromising by “meeting in the middle.” Myth: “Arbitration is too expensive.” Similarly, not so. Arbitration does tend to be more “front-loaded” in terms of cost: The parties pay a more substantial initial filing fee to the arbitral forums than they do to file a case in court, and they pay refundable deposits for arbitrator compensation relatively early in the case (a component absent from litigation, where compensating the judges beyond their governmental salaries is, like ju
