AboutTimmy Chou Expertise I am a experienced Mediator and a partner in a management consulting firm. As a mediator I work as a third-party neutral and specialize in partnership/shareholder disputes, management/labor issues, company culture difficulties, and family-owned business problems. I can help describe why alternative dispute resolution may be a good choice for you. As an experienced management consultant I may be able to offer creative ideas to help resolve your organizational and business problems and disputes. "If you say conflict, I say opportunity".
Question Hi, My mother is involved in a binding arbitration proceeding with a "rent a
judge" or retired judge in California over a dispute between her and the
people who bought our former home. The total amount of their claim, or
what they are asking for, is $14000, but the judge already ruled that half of
their claim lacked merit and would not be considered, lowering the amount to
$7,000. My mother and lawyers tried to go to mediation and offered a fair
settlement, despite the dubious nature of the claim. Anyway, this $7,000 has
dragged on & it has already been 5 days of arbitration, at $3000 a day, and
the plaintiff's lawyer has taken an exorbitant amout of time with unecessary
witnesses and repetetive questions. This is a very straightforward dispute
over a small amount, yet both sides have already spent 6-7 times the amount
of the alleged damages. Basically, my question is why a judge would allow
this to drag on so long (after 5 days, they have only gotten through 3
witnesses in this $7000 he said/she said real estate dispute and whether or
not there are any legal avenues of redress. Thank you.
Answer Thanks for your question.
Arbitration has developed numerous conventions and procedures across the various industries and venues it is used. Hence, a construction contractor dispute in California has a usual and customary procedure that has served the CA area, while a US Postal Service employment arbitration in Florida has completely different rules and conventions. It would be nice to be able to say that there is some uniformity in arbitration but there really is not I'm afraid.
Therefore it is hard to be able to speak to the usual and customary procedure in your case. Mediation and arbitration are designed to be sensible however, and it would seem self-evident that the financial result here is moot if it drags on too long. Your attorney should be pushing this with the arbiter if it is permitted.
You will have to rely on the written contracts to look for any remedy. If these documents give the winner the right to recover legal costs you can rely on this, though often they do not.
You may have the right to proceed to litigation as well, but it will cost you more to file an action of course so I'm not sure this helps.
I'm afraid that often people do the math and just pay off plaintiffs who are clearly in the wrong just because it is cheaper to do so than win an expensive court case. At some point you may have to consider the merits of just cutting your losses.
