The American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) released recommendations for AAA Construction Advocates and Arbitrators with regard to best discovery practices and tips for Construction Arbitration. See American Arbitration Association Discovery Best Practices for Construction Arbitration (“Best Practices”). Through the AAA National Construction Dispute Resolution Committee, our own John Bulman played a key role in drafting these guidelines. The 7-page guideline provides a bullet point, practical summary of information exchange in arbitration. It is a helpful resource to counsel, clients, and arbitrators to understand the ground rules in an arbitration proceeding. In this post, I summarize some of the key takeaways from the Best Practices.
Document Exchange
Generally, parties are entitled to examine an opposing parties documents; however, “the scope of documents should be narrowly tailored and proportionate to the disputes at hand.” To achieve this goal, parties should each submit detailed statement of claims and defenses as early as possible to narrow the issues,
