The Role of Arbitrators in AC-Land: An Unscientific 2+2 Poll

[John Kilduff]

With all the references made regarding arbitrators in various AC threads, today I started to wonder what the role of arbitration firms would really be like in AC-Land.

Would arbitration as a method of conflict resolution become more popular if AC were to come to pass? Or might it become less popular than it is today, or stay about the same in terms of popularity?

I am not aware of any personal friend or family member who has had a dispute resolved via arbitration. My guess is that arbitration as a dispute resolution tool, while occasionally utilized today, really isn't all that widely used, relatively speaking. I could be wrong on this.

The sense I get from AC-ists on this forum is that arbitration would become quite a widely used resolution tool if AC were to come to pass.

So what is your guess? And why?

Thanks for voting and for commenting.

[tomdemaine]

I think it'd be used quite often early on until people realised that their nightmares about all vs all were unfounded and they didn't need it. Then it'd be more efficient to do business without them but with people and firms who have built up trust. Arbitration firms would still probably be useful for massive contracts or international deals but outside of that they'd probably be used less and less or be rolled into an insurance payment.

[RedBean]

Assuming it being a replacement for the civil and criminal court system, it would obviously be immensely more popular as that caseload has to be handled somehow.

And it would probably be much better for everyone involved, except the lawyers.....

I used arbitration with the insurance company after Katrina rather than a lawsuit that could have gotten expensive and drawn out for 2+ years (some folks are still in court today).....and it was resolved within 3 months, and we both came out satisfied with a surprisingly fair result....neither or us had lawyers involved, and the grand total cost was $500 for the arbitration service.

[bobman0330]

[ QUOTE ]
Assuming it being a replacement for the civil and criminal court system, it would obviously be immensely more popular as that caseload has to be handled somehow.

[/ QUOTE ]

[adios]

Believe it or not arbitration is an integral part of the current judicial system now in many, many places in the U.S. regarding civil court matters.

[MidGe]

I am the current lone voter for the last option.

I am sure that in AC Land Arbitrators would not be the referee of choice. The biggest gun power, would soon be, without a shadow of a doubt! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[wtfsvi]

[ QUOTE ]
I am the current lone voter for the last option.

I am sure that in AC Land Arbitrators would not be the referee of choice. The biggest gun power, would soon be, without a shadow of a doubt! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ] It already is.

[MidGe]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I am the current lone voter for the last option.

I am sure that in AC Land Arbitrators would not be the referee of choice. The biggest gun power, would soon be, without a shadow of a doubt! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ] It already is.

[/ QUOTE ]

True, true! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] But it is "elected" as custodian of the "big gun" and that is heaps better than being able to afford the biggest gun.

[ALawPoker]

My guess is somewhere between "immensely popular" and "slightly more utilized" because I think the effectiveness and then the demand will be something that can be described as between "immensely popular" and "slightly more," so that's the extent to which I would guess people would use that service. (I didn't vote though, because neither option seemed particularly accurate to what my guess would have been.)

But there's no way to really know. The only reason you can safely assume it would go up is because the state courts presently saturate so much of the business. How often exactly would people use auto mechanics in an AC society? Who knows, really. But I know when my car is broken I am better off when I pay a professional to fix it. So, they'll be used to roughly the same degree as people interpret problems with their cars.

[Borodog]

As pvn pointed out recently, what would happen to Ford Tauruses if government provided "free" low end cars for everyone? They would be squeezed out of the market. Such is currently the case with most dispute resolution.

Well, not quite. The vast majority of potntial conflicts, as in virtually all of them except a nearly infinitesimal fraction, are avoided in the first place by private property rights. And of the disputes that do arise, the majority of those are settled between the disputants without resort to a third party at all, or a private unofficial third party helps mediate a resolution. This is because most disputes are not related to things of great value. Only in the case of disputes over matters of great value is professional arbitration a cost effective solution, and this is precisely where government monopoly courts squeeze out private arbitration.