Arbitration Services

Arbitration can save you court time and money. Arbitration is private judging. Arbitration is more formal and restrictive than mediation, but gives you flexibility you will not get from the court.

In arbitration, one or three arbitrators hear the case. (When there is a panel of arbitrators, at least one member is an arbitration attorney, but other members may be non-attorney arbitrators). In one sense, it’s like going to court: each side may submit legal briefs, may take discovery, and usually will present live testimony. The biggest difference is that the parties have much more of a say in the arbitration process: they can agree to forego certain expensive aspects of litigation, and they have much more control over when the dispute will be decided. Because you are in essence hiring a “private judge” who works for the parties, not the government, you get to set many of the rules for the arbitration.

The bottom line is, in arbitration you can control more of the process and timing, but it can still be expensive and a third party is making the final decision. It is a middle ground between mediation and litigation in court. Sometimes, the best choice is arbitration. Maryland attorney Bob Baum has over 24 years of experience in binding arbitration and reaching agreement in a wide variety of disputes such as divorce property, labor construction, and debt arbitration cases.

Full, experienced service at a lower cost:

Mr. Baum is experienced in deciding many types of cases; in addition to his private sector cases, he served as the highest judicial officer for a federal government agency, for which is issued numerous opinions in cases. Yet his arbitration services are less expensive--by about 50%-- than arbitrators hired through national arbitration associations.

With Mr. Baum as your arbitrator, you get his undivided attention in a solid block of time: beware of other arbitrators who may give you just scattered hearing days scheduled weeks or months apart. He gives you complete arbitration services, including as a standard feature, full written opinions. His ethic as an arbitrator is, if you take the trouble and expense to hire him, you are entitled to hearings and opinions when you need them.