Arbitration Cases a Growing Revenue Stream for Law Firms
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The old refrain, “See you in court!” is so last century. The latest trend in resolving contractual disputes is the less expensive, out-of-court process of arbitration. Even the Kardashians include an arbitration clause in their contracts, and you can’t get any trendier than that.
Though arbitration is intended to be cheaper and speedier than a legal trial, for South Florida law firms it also has become an important and growing revenue stream.
Twenty years ago, arbitration was considered a niche area of the law. Today, hundreds of local attorneys practice arbitration.
Arbitration typically involves less paperwork — due to limited discovery and depositions — and instead of a jury, one to three “judges’’ decide the outcome. The arbitrators — called “neutrals” — can decide the case based on the law or their own common sense. Also, like Las Vegas, what happens there stays there, unless the parties agree to go public.
But while cases can be cheaper and more streamlined, the more complex matters can take as long as a trial and be as costly. And in most cases, there’s no option for appeal.
Still, backlogs in the courts have made arbitration increasingly popular. As the number of pending cases has skyrocketed, the number of civil suits actually being heard by juries has slipped off the edge. In just six years, from 2006 to 2012, the number of cases pending in Miami’s civil court grew nearly 250 percent, from roughly 37,000 to more than 91,000. By contrast, between 2009 and 2012, civil jury trials dipped from a high of 279 to a low of 210 in 2012, according to figures supplied by Scott Silverman, a retired 11th Circuit Court judge. That’s a reduction of nearly 25 percent.
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Tags: Arbitration Cases, Arbitration Clause, South Florida law firms
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