Alan M Freeman News

More than once, I have been asked to resolve a dispute in which my client was surprised to learn either that it could not force the other side into arbitration, or that arbitration was very different from its expectations. Many companies devote hours (if not weeks and months) to negotiating what they consider to be the “substantive” terms of a contract, yet they pay little attention to the dispute resolution clause often included among boilerplate terms at the end. This is a risky practice, for rights that are carefully bargained for may effectively be lost if the “right” dispute resolution procedure is not negotiated at the outset. When it comes to dispute resolution clauses, there is no one-size-fits-all solution.