New Jersey Arbitration Handbook

New Jersey Arbitration Handbook is a practical guide for practitioners and arbitrators alike. It serves as an essential resource for lawyers and attorneys, explaining what to expect in a typical hearing and the guidelines for the arbitration process. The handbook features topical case summaries, along with relevant statutes, rules, and guidance for arbitration proceedings.

Chapters include:

“Dreier and Bartkus have truly demonstrated in the Handbook how the arbitration process can be conducted as an efficient, less expensive and final alternative to the public court system.”

—Robert E. Margulies, Schumann Hanlon Margulies LLC

“There are few resources available to arbitrators to answer questions small or substantial in both the procedural and substantive areas of the law; New Jersey Arbitration Handbook is that resource. I depend upon the book for explanatory issues from jurisdiction to discovery. It answers my questions with case law and statutory citations, plus an effective dose of practicality”

—Hon. Harriet Derman, Chancellor and Presiding Judge, Retired Mediator, Arbitrator, and Special Master, Harriet Derman, Esq. LLC

The 2026 edition of New Jersey Arbitration Handbook includes discussion of recent cases and other developments in this important area of law. Judge Glenn Berman and David N. Cinotti continue as contributors for this edition, working with author Robert Bartkus on these key updates:

• More than 140 new state and federal court case summaries from the New Jersey Law Journal on topics that affect New Jersey practice, including unpublished cases not included in other publications, notable for their interesting fact situations, potential new legal developments or pitfalls to avoid
• Extended textual discussions for more than a dozen published cases in areas such as the liability of non-signatories, subject matter jurisdiction, and the downside of “standard” awards in construction cases
• Analysis of the failure to use waiver language in real estate acquisition contracts and wills where “sophisticated” parties represented by transaction counsel sought to avoid enforcement of arbitration clauses
• References and guidelines for use of AI in arbitration
• Interpretation of a new statutory section on consumer contracts, N.J.S.A. 56:12-2a, regarding what have been termed “infinite” arbitration clauses, enacted in response to the Appellate Division's McGinty v. Jia Wen Zheng opinion enforcing an arbitration clause in a ride-share service customer agreement
• The full text of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) Commercial, Consumer and International Arbitration rules, as well as up-to-date texts of the Federal Arbitration Act (celebrating its 100th anniversary) and the New Jersey Revised Uniform Arbitration Act (which dates back, via its predecessors, to two years earlier than enactment of the federal act) are included