Arbitration has been described as old-time litigation on steroids—limited discovery, no depositions, few constrains on demonstratives, and decision makers who may or may not be attorneys. But arbitration is a wonderful dispute resolution mechanism provided you understand how it works. If you did not take an ADR course in law school, you will probably obtain your knowledge firsthand—namely by representing a client in a pending arbitration. That can be a scary proposition when the amount in controversy runs into the high six figures.

So how can a young lawyer safely learn the ins and outs of the arbitration process? The American Arbitration Association (AAA) has recently introduced a new online tool—CaseXplorer. A user selects a panel of three to five evaluative arbitrators. The selected arbitrators can have the same or different legal or professional backgrounds. The user presents his or her case online by means of written or video content. The user then asks each arbitrator to independently respond to questions drafted by the user that are designed to elicit perceptions and opinions regarding the strengths and weaknesses of the facts, the legal arguments, videotaped testimony, and the manner of the presentation.

Depending upon the way the questions are drafted, the focus of the online evaluation can be either exploratory or confirmatory. An exploratory online evaluation is targeted at examining how arbitrators think—their potential preconceptions, what they need to know in advance, what they need to learn during the presentation, and the process they will use to evaluate the evidence and reach decisions. Typically arbitrators selected to conduct an exploratory evaluation have different legal or professional backgrounds. This enables the attorney to ascertain to what extent different backgrounds might impact presentation of the case. The final report issued by the arbitrators will provide valuable information concerning the themes, evidence, and arguments that were perceived as the most convincing; the misconceptions and misunderstandings that arose during presentation of the client’s case; and perceptions of videotaped presentations conducted by witnesses, experts, and counsel.

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