ADR

  • April 12, 2021

Highlights from the AAA’s New Publication on Discovery Best Practices

ADR, Discovery

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,

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  • May 21, 2020

Virtual Arbitrations/Trials — Should You Use An Expanded Witness Oath?

ADR, COVID-19

For arbitrations and trials that are pending and/or are scheduled for the near term, the judges/arbitrators/counsel/parties are now confronting the decision on whether to proceed forward with conducting the proceedings remotely.  If they decide to proceed forward, there will naturally be some reluctance to proceed forward.  The reluctance is because it is new and unfamiliar.  It is because there is a sense that it may be more challenging to evaluate a witness’ credibility and veracity.

There are also technological concerns of virtual hearings — both as to functionality (testing the video/audio connection) and the integrity of the testimony.  In this post, I am sharing a contribution from my Pierce Atwood law partner John Bulman, FCIArb who regularly serves as an arbitrator handling construction and commercial cases domestically and internationally.  In his post below, John addresses specifically the issue of additional measures that should be considered by arbitrators, attorneys, and witnesses to ensure the integrity of the virtual arbitration process.

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  • April 09, 2020

Virtual Mediations Are Zooming Forward . . . Jump on Board

ADR, COVID-19, Mediation
Authors:
Practice area:

With most of the country on stay at home orders of some variety and court closings, parties to claims, litigation, and arbitrations are adapting quickly to virtual litigation activities that are customarily done in person.  This includes virtual depositions, mediations, arbitrations, and trials.

In this post, I will talk about virtual mediations.

Contractual mediation is a requirement in many construction contracts to proceeding forward with litigation/arbitration.  There is often a period of time in which the mediation should be concluded before a party may proceed to the next step of dispute resolution.

No matter the parties to the case, it is customary for parties, their counsel, experts, and insurance representatives to meet in-person at the mediator’s office, one of the law firms, or some neutral location like JAMS and/or AAA’s offices.  The physical presence is an advantage in that it gets parties and their counsel together at the same place with one objective in mind — settle

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  • March 19, 2020

Signing a Construction Contract in the Middle of the Coronavirus Pandemic . . . Two Contract Clauses to Consider

ADR, Contract Documents, COVID-19, Risk Management

There is rightfully a lot of buzz in the construction industry about force majeure clauses.  Authors are writing about how far and how much they protect contracting parties from unforeseen and uncontrollable events that cause delay.

While the standard AIA, ConsensusDocs, or other industry form contract time extension and/or force majeure clauses will likely provide some relief as to time extensions in appropriate situations, contracting parties may be best served to acknowledge the uncertainties our industry is confronting by crafting specific language for delays and increased costs resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sample language for consideration:

Notwithstanding the requirements and obligations set forth in the Contract Documents and this Agreement, Contractor shall be entitled to an extension of the Contract Time and an equitable adjustment of the Contract Price, due to labor shortages, material escalation, or otherwise, for the performance of Subcontractor’s Work due to events and conditions beyond Contractor’s control, including the present

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  • November 15, 2019

Pierce Atwood Attorneys Attend Construction Industry Dispute Resolution Meeting in Washington, DC

ADR, PA News

Last week, John Bulman and I attended the National Construction Dispute Resolution Committee’s (NCDRC) Annual Meeting in Washington, DC. The NCDRC is an advisory committee formed by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) to engage in discussion with a wide variety of construction industry associations about the AAA Rules and dispute resolution processes generally. The American Institute of Architects (AIA) graciously hosted the meeting at its offices.

Representatives from the following organizations were present:

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