Nothing But Net -- Fall 2000
By Larry P. Schiffer, LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae, L.L.P.
Information resources on the Internet for lawyers are expanding geometrically.
Insurance and reinsurance practitioners are benefitting from this expansion as more and
more insurance and reinsurance resources appear on the Internet. This article briefly
discusses the resources available to lawyers involved in reinsurance arbitrations.
One of the first things that happens in a reinsurance arbitration is the selection of
the arbitration panel. The selection process requires knowledge about the background of
potential arbitrators. There are a number of paper-based resources available to
practitioners that list potential arbitrators and their backgrounds. New to the Internet,
however, are electronic versions of these directories aimed specifically for insurance and
reinsurance arbitrations.
The first out of the box is the Reinsurance Association of America's Arbitrator
Directory. The Directory, which contains biographic information on those who have
submitted information for listing by the RAA, is now on the web in searchable form. You
can find the directory at:
http://www.reinsurancearbitrators.com/
. The RAA does not certify arbitrators and the Directory is only a catalogue of
individuals interested in serving as arbitrators, mediators, and umpires in insurance and
reinsurance disputes. Another source of information about potential arbitrators and
umpires is the ARIAS US website at http://www.arias-us.org/
. The names of ARIAS US certified arbitrators are contained on the website and
biographic information on each arbitrator will be available on the website very shortly
(probably by the time you read this article). Private arbitration/mediation providers like
JAMS and the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution also has their neutrals listed on their
websites with full biographies listed by geographic location or specialty http://www.jamsadr.com/locations.asp or
http://www.cpradr.org/panels.htm.
The RAA and the ARIAS US websites also provide links to rules, guidelines, forms,
procedures, and other useful information. The RAA website has the full text of the
recently developed Procedures for the Resolution of US Insurance and Reinsurance Disputes
< http://www.reinsurancearbitrators.com/procedures/index.html>, while the ARIAS US site has the ARIAS US
Practical Guide to Reinsurance Arbitration Procedure < http://www.arias-us.org/res_and_pro/guide_intro.html
>. The RAA website has an interesting list of books, speeches, and articles
about reinsurance dispute resolution <
http://www.reinsurancearbitrators.com/research/index.html>.
The ARIAS US website is being re-launched shortly and will include its Umpire Selection
Procedure and a list of certified arbitrators that qualify as umpires.Other sources for
dispute resolution information include the American Arbitration Association < http://www.adr.org/>, JAMS < http://www.jamsadr.com/home.html, and the CPR
Institute for Dispute Resolution < http://www.cpradr.org/>.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Besides the ESLR website <http://www.abanet.org/tips/eslr/home.html>,
other bar and trade organizations are adding material daily about insurance and
reinsurance dispute resolution. The web has become a virtual dispute resolution library.
Take advantage and log on.
If you have any Internet sites of interest to our members or have any topics you would
like to see discussed, please let me know at
lschiffe@llgm.com.
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