I have been busy with an arbitration case concerning dispute of international trade these days on behalf of a client. The first step of take part in the arbitration is to appoint one arbitrator from the arbitrators name list of the arbitration committee. This is, in fact, a big advantage of arbitrator compared with the court, for when instituting an action in court, any party has no right to decide the judge sitting on bench.
You may wonder why it is important for a party to appoint one appropriate arbitrator. The arbitrator will still sit in the middle and won’t speak for you much even though he is selected by you. What’s more, for a foreign client, he may not know anything about arbitrators in the name list. So, what difference would it make to spend time in selecting an arbitrator?
It does make a difference. Of course, the arbitrator you appoint won’t be partial to you and deliberately pervert the law in favor of you, but he could supervise the other arbitrator appointed by the other party against any unfair acts. This is actually a balanced structure. If you give up this right, the other party will have a chance to get a favorable award. Additionally, the arbitrator appointed by you will more or less take care of your justifiably procedural and substantial rights and it will help the communication between you and the arbitration committee.
There are three principles you need to consider when selecting one arbitrator.
First, the arbitrator should be fluent in the language of your state. It will give you great convenience and avoid the bother of translation.
Second, the arbitrator should be an expert in the disputed issue. This will guarantee a quicker proceeding and a reasonable and justifiably award.
Third, try to select an arbitrator who has some relationship with you or your attorney, no matter how tiny the relationship is, such as a same university, same hometown or even same experience. You can’t count upon these to get a favorable award, but, at least, you will feel comfortable during the proceeding.