The newly formed Dispute Resolution Section of the New York State Bar Association recently issued a report on “Arbitration Discovery in Domestic Commercial Cases.” The report was approved unanimously by both the executive committee and the House of Delegates of the state bar. The report was created by a subcommittee of the arbitration committee, assisted by a larger task force of knowledgeable persons from the arbitration world.
The report addresses the vexing problem that has grown up in recent years for parties to disputes who have sought an alternative to court litigation, which has become very expensive and time-consuming due, in large part, to excessive discovery. Many have adopted arbitration as an alternative only to find that discovery in arbitration has become as burdensome, or nearly so, as it is in litigation.
