The goal of commercial arbitration is to bring final disposition to business disputes as an efficient and economical alternative to litigation. In an effort to improve efficiency, discovery is generally more limited than expected in litigation. Limited discovery can have a profound impact on summary disposition in arbitration. Summary judgment in litigation allows cases to be resolved partially or entirely, after the opportunity for discovery, when no genuine issue of material fact exists and judgment is otherwise proper as a matter of law. In contrast, commercial arbitration does not have hard and fast substantive standards for dispositive motions. Arbitration instead concentrates on procedural rules to reach a just and fair result.

Like many courts, summary disposition in arbitration requires a pre-motion request. Although the procedure varies in different forums and before different arbitrators, Rule 34 of the Commercial Rules of the American Arbitration Association describes the rules regarding summary disposition: