A Variety Of Articles Discuss Mediation And Arbitration In March 20, 2017 Special Report.

    A March 20, 2016 Special Report of The New York Law Journal covers diverse topics including collaborative divorce, a proposed New York rule that might make arbitration “truly confidential”, diversity in ADR, solving interpersonal problems in mediation, preparing for successful mediation, and enforcing foreign arbitral awards against foreign corporations registered to do business in New York.

    The interesting article on the proposed New York rule to make arbitration “truly confidential” turns out to be a bit over-hyped. It is actually about a proposed rule allowing for the sealing of court records containing confidential business information. The proposed rule is not specifically tailored to arbitration, but it might be used to protect the arbitral record at the time one moves to confirm or vacate an arbitration award in court. Generally certain information needs to be disclosed to the trial court to confirm or vacate an arbitration award, and it can be a challenge to keep information confidential that had, up till the court appearance, been kept confidential in arbitration. A statutory rule allowing information to be sealed if it contains confidential business information might offer one solution. If such a rule were to be widely adopted in practice, it would further push arbitration into an alternative legal universe, where there is no published opinion to serve as precedent, and records are sealed in court.