Med/Arb

Med/arb is a combination of mediation and arbitration, in which the parties agree in advance that they will mediate but that, if the dispute is not resolved through mediation, they will proceed to binding arbitration. (In some cases, the mediation may resolve some, but not all, of the issues in dispute and thus will narrow the focus of the arbitration.) The parties generally determine in advance whether the same individual will serve as arbitrator if the dispute is not entirely resolved through mediation. Although the use of the same individual will usually be more efficient, some neutrals are reluctant to serve as mediator in a case in which they will also serve as arbitrator. Also, parties may be reluctant to share confidential information with a mediator who may later hand down a binding decision. BLC member David Hoffman has served as an arbitrator, after first serving as a mediator, in a number of cases in which the parties made progress in the mediation but failed to reach a settlement. Once the parties are familiar with a mediator, they may be in a better position to judge whether they would entrust the ultimate decision of the case to that individual.