Taxation & Estate Planning

More on the Referral Problem -- ADR

By Joel A. Schoenmeyer

I spoke yesterday about the potential conflict of interest that arises when a third party (like a financial planner or accountant) refers a lot of business to an estate planner. A similar, but perhaps more serious, problem arises in the context of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and referrals.

More and more companies make their employees and/or customers sign documents stating that disputes will be settled through the ADR process. That's fair on its face, but as a practical matter, I have some questions about how this works. There are only so many ADR professionals out there -- how is the person who will handle the mediation and/or arbitration chosen? If the person is chosen by the company, then we've got a problem -- if I'm referring 100 cases a year to Bob's ADR Shop, aren't I going to be monitoring closely the outcome of those cases? And aren't I going to hire someone else if I find that Bob's ADR Shop isn't favoring my company as much as I'd like?

Carried to its logical extreme, you get situations like the one detailed in this article (thanks, Tim), about the National Arbitration Forum

Full post as published by Death and Taxes Blog on June 13, 2008 (boomark / email).