what is family arbitration?

Family arbitration can be a powerful tool in the peace toolbox, whether you are divorcing in the UK, US, Australia, Canada – or anywhere else arbitration exists.  Compared to going to court, arbitration – also known as having a ‘private judge’ – saves the money and a whole load of time.

What’s really important, is that by choosing your own specialist judge for your financial or your co-parenting dispute, it keeps you both in charge of the process. The arbitrator you choose may be far better equipped to make a binding legal decision than a judge your are assigned through the courts, who may only limited training in some aspects of family law.

You can pick your own times, work online, and get the whole thing sorted so much more quickly. And because you probably need barristers the overall cast can be significantly less than going to court.

Family Arbitration is still the new kid on the block in the family law community in England and Wales, and the potential benefits to divorcing clients are immense.  My interest in finding out more about family arbitration was originally sparked by a conversation with New York Mediator Ken Neumann, who described how useful arbitrators could be in un-sticking a mediation process.  “Sometimes,” he explained to me, “the couple can’t agree on one issue, and they just want someone else to decide for them.”

Family Arbitration can rescue a mediated divorce from crumbling into a nasty expensive court battle. Also this can be true for collaborative law if you get stuck on something and just can’t agree.