Customer Reviews

Basic Skills for the New Arbitrator, Second Edition

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I first purchased and read Judge Goodman's Basic Skills For the New Arbitrator in 1994 when I began arbitrating. Having just finished reading the most recent edition, I am struck by the continuing usefulness of the detailed and practical advice contained in this book. While I have participated in arbitrator trainings over the years, they usually do not cover the nitty gritty "how to" issues this work addresses. These issues are easy to find as the Table of Contents is organized into sections devoted to each stage of an arbitration with an enumeration, under each heading, of all the questions addressed. Judge Goodman's style is clear and concise which makes the book a quick and easy read. It seems directed primarily at non-lawyers, but many lawyers, such as myself, will find in it their money's worth of advice. Personally, as much of my practice is devoted to mediation, I find reviewing the book helpful when I need to switch hats and assume a judicial (as opposed to a mediator's) demeanor. His advice in this regard, touching on body language, facial expression, and utterances, is invaluable in cultivating the proper persona of the neutral arbitrator. I highly recommend this thoughful, easy-to-read book to anyone who is starting to engage in arbitration and for those for whom it is not a weekly endeavor.

As an experienced arbitrator, I am always looking for good information from those who actually are arbitrators. There are alot of books written by academics filled with theory and psychology, but this is a book by someone who obviously arbitrates for a living. As an arbitrator who is not an attorney, I found the information about dealing with attorneys, documents, objections and evidence quite helpful, as one can easily be intimidated by attorneys if they are involved in the process. The section on "Getting Paid" hit home. I too have had the experience of not getting paid by a party after the arbitration. The author's suggestion to hold the award until payment is received may sound harsh, but it certainly is sound business advice. The arrangement of the book as questions and answers, with the questions listed in the table of contents, makes this book easy to use as a quick reference. Definitely worth the price.

As a new volunteer arbitrator for my local bar association, I found Judge Goodman's book to be indispensable in acquiring the skills and expertise for this new task. His experience in this field are excellent and he uses this experience in a question and answer format which lends itself to an easy, but extremely effective format, for new, as well as experienced, arbitrators. His hints and tips give new arbitrators the guidance and confidence necessary to lead an effective, but expedient, arbitration. This is the number one book for those new to arbitration, or those needing a review of arbitration methods and techniques.

Mr. Goodman's book is the finest quick primer for a new arbitrator I have ever read. For virtually anyone familiar with any type of legal procedure or mediation, the book lays out the differences specific to Arbitration. Mr. Goodman has arranged the book, so that he presents the answers to the 100 most commonly asked questions about Arbitration.

The layout that he uses is in order of the Arbitration process, and thus, the questions and answers are in "as needed" sequence. This makes the book a very useful quick reference tool on all the major topics of the process of Arbitration.

The book is very highly recommended to attorneys, mediators and other legal professionals as a very compact and explicit guide and quick reference book about the procedures of Arbitration.

Both of Allan Goodman's books, BASIC SKILLS FOR THE NEW MEDIATOR and BASIC SKILLS FOR THE NEW ARBITRATOR, deserve to be read and re-read by every ADR professional and every advisor to parties in dispute before he or she enters the session. As a practicing mediator, arbitrator and ADR trainer, I know I do, and it gives me the presence to relax and "enjoy" the session, because I know I will be giving the best process skills of ADR to the parties and their representatives.

Concise, readily assimilated answers to some of the most perplexing problems faced by ADR neutrals are presented at each stage of the mediation and arbitration process. I would further recommend the appropriate book be given to the disputing parties to assist them in knowledgeable decision-making and a successful resolution.

I have represented clients in commercial and construction industry arbitrations for over twenty years...the most complex involved over eighty days of hearings before three AAA Arbitrators. But I've never been exactly sure where the arbitrators - and especially the Presiding Arbitrator - were coming from procedurally. Issues such as the periodic non-applicability of evidentiary rules, use or not of transcripts, prehearing conferences, etc. appeared to be determined ad hoc.

Judge Goodman's tutorial for new Arbitrators is an important tool for parties to arbitrations and their representatives, not just the Arbitrator about to hear her first case. It takes the mystery out of the process, and provides predictable scenarios at every stage of an Arbitration. The advocate has a pretty accurate sense of where the Arbitrator is heading.

I wish that I'd had this invaluable resource years ago!

In Allan H. Goodman's book, Basic Skills for the New Arbitrator, Judge Goodman starts with the myth that arbitration will result in an award that reflects the arbitrator's decision to simply "split the baby." The comment hit a sensitive nerve with me. I was once a principal in a dispute almost twenty years ago where I thought the arbitration panel, after a long and complex series of hearings, rendered what I viewed as just such a decision. Had this been my only experience with arbitration I would have accepted the myth as reality. Now, having served as an arbitrator for over fifteen years, I have not seen the myth supported in any case. Not only do I believe that decisions to "split the baby" are rare, I believe that most arbitrators do not want to be associated with a decision that may even appear to lack the required effort to properly render a decision. What Judge Goodman has done here is to warn the reader that the work of the arbitrator requires not just the appearance of doing that which is necessary to render a proper decision, but that the arbitrator is duty bound from initial disclosure to award writing to fairly address each step of this process. Realizing that most arbitrators, including attorneys, will perform their duties on, at best, an intermittent basis, the task of focusing on those skills with each new case is obligatory if we are to have a credible process. This book is not only a valuable resource for both new and veteran arbitrators, it is a book that someone eventually would have to write. There are authors who write fiction and those who write non-fiction, but the bravest authors are those who write "how to" books. Taking the challenge that there may be legions of practitioners out there who are prepared to second guess another professional in the field as "how to" perform throughout the arbitration process, Judge Goodman has more than met the test. While many veteran arbitrators will not always recognize him or herself in this book based on their experience, they will have to concede, with few exceptions, that these guidlines are institutionally proper. But how can something be institutionally proper when, unlike the courts, arbitration has no body of law or a mandated procedural system? The answer to this question is that what we have here is that which is universally accepted as the norm of performance with recommendations. The generally recognized rules and procedures of arbitration are described here as the norm and the recommendations are those that are unique to the author based on his experience. It is the very nature of arbitration to be responsive to the task at hand even if your decision may be judged by others differently. By describing what he would do in certain circumstances, Judge Goodman has exposed his view on a variety issues for the purpose of putting a human face on a process in need of demonstration. While the author may not be as brave as the first person who ate an oyster, he deserves a great deal of credit for giving life and continuity to what we believe is a worthwhile method of dispute resolution.

I purchased this book not because I am a new arbitrator but because I am a new mediator and I wanted to educate myself about other dispute resolution techniques. By reading about the skills required of an arbitrator and contrasting this with my knowledge of mediation, I gained a clear understanding as to the differences in these two methods of dispute resolution. The question-and-answer format in this book is an effective self-training tool. It is evident that the author is an experienced trainer with extensive arbitration experience. What came through to me from Mr. Goodman's treatment of the arbitrator's skills was an understanding of the diplomacy required of the arbitrator. This diplomacy is necessary because the arbitrator operates in an adversarial process in which the decision maker has the ultimate authority to render a binding decision but may not have the authority a judge would have to control the parties in their conduct both before and during the hearing.

I recommend this book, as well as the companion text Basic Skills for the New Mediator, to all arbitrators and mediators who seek a thorough understanding of alternative dispute resolution techniques.

While this book provides some very good basic information, especially for a new arbitrator, some of Mr. Goodman's ideas are radically different from the practice of most main stream arbitrators. Certainly the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and the American Arbitration Association would disagree with Mr. Goodman's statement that "No reasons are given for the award" when a decision is rendered. I personally do not know any arbitrator who does not clearly state the basis for a decision/award. Also, it is not common practice, and certainly not good advice for a novice, to hold the rendered decision hostage until payment for the arbitration service is received. The author is addressing "basic skills" for new arbitrators and could mislead them in these and other opinions stated in this book which, incidentally, I believe is over-priced for its size and paper bound format.

I found Basic Skills for the New Arbitrator to contain a great deal of information for a topic that I had little knowledge. It helped me discover what I needed to look for in a mediation course and I enrolled in one at the University of Colorado. The book was written in 2002 and mediation was still relatively new, so I did wonder from time to time if there were things I was reading that might be outdated, because of possible changes in the field.