Question

What rules does an arbitrator follow in crafting an award? Have you ever participated in an arbitration? If so, tell us about it. If not, tell us anything you may have heard about arbitrations.

Answer 1

Arbitration is a process to solve a dispute by a full and final resolution to the problem. An arbitrator provides a solution to a dispute by issuing a decision in the form of an award. The awards or the decisions awarded by the arbitrator must be prepared according to the rules and regulations of the government of the place of arbitration. If proper rules are not followed while preparing the award, the enforcement of the awards become very difficult in that case.

1. Written Format- An award should always be in a written format as a document.

2.Title - The title of the document must have a clear heading as AWARD

3. A complete description of events- The awards must disclose, event by event happenings, evidence produced and the arguments that are applied in each event to be mentioned clearly. The reason for taking the decision should also be mentioned clearly. the date, time and place should also be mentioned. The law applied to the facts and findings should also be mentioned.

4. Simply Written- The award should be drafted in a simple language, in short paragraphs, and no technical jargon should be used. It should be written in short sentences so that everyone can understand it. There should be no ambiguity in writing.

5. Sufficient information- An award should have sufficient information about the case so that a third party to the case can also be able to understand it.

6. Following Rules and regulations- An award should be prepared by considering the rules and regulations of the states or government where it is prepared, to make the enforcement of award an easy process.

7.Time of award- The award should be prepared by the time mentioned in the agreement. If it is not mentioned, the award should be prepared without any delay within a specified time as decided by the arbitrator.

8. Communication of Award- The communication of award must be made to the parties, in the way defined in the agreement. An arbitrator should not hold an award for any reason. It should be sent by couriers to the parties in the agreement or the persons who represent them in their absence.

9, Signature- All the arbitrators involved in issuing the award, must sign the award.

10. Conclusion- There should be a separate section for the conclusion at the end of the award. The award should mention the term as we declare before the judgment.

11. Checking of final award- The award drafted should be checked finally with proper care that there are no typing errors and all the monetary values are written clearly without any ambiguity.

There are no fixed rules for an arbitrator to follow before crafting an award but it should follow the above legal steps for framing an award,

No, I have never been in an arbitration. But there are certain things that I would like to share about arbitrations i.e. 1. After issuing the award if the losing party does not follow the decision in the award, the winning party may approach the court for making the winning party follow the reward.

2. An arbitrator can change the award only if there is a clerical or computational mistake that too within 20 days of sending the final award to the parties. They cannot change the main decision in the award.

3. There are very few reasons due to which an award can be challenged in any court of law. In some cases, the arbitrator can issue an additional award, if they are authorized in the agreement to do so and also if the arbitrator has left out some important information to consider in the main award.

4. The process of arbitration is similar to that of the courtroom The parties mentioned their points to the arbitrators , produce their evidence, but the cross-examination process is quite limited.In the end, the arbitrator give the final decision.

5. There are different types of awards, that are awarded ie..partial, deafult e.t.c.