Is your Palm Beach probate dispute subject to an arbitration agreement? Has a judge ordered you to under gomediation? Do you want to get out of that arbitration agreement? You may want to see what the Fourth District Court of Appeals did when a West Palm Beach trial court issued an order inconsistent with arbitration agreement.
Arbitration
- Arbitration is a less formal process (compared to court) whereby a party may have their dispute heard by a neutral arbitrator.
- Parties can only be compelled into arbitration when there is a previously executed agreement.
- Do you think you are subject to any arbitration agreements?
- The answer may surprise you; most sales contracts have these built in.
- For example check out the agreements you made with your cell phone carrier, car dealership and most of your other large-scale purchases.
- Arbitration agreements are also very popular in trust litigation because grantors like to put these clauses into the trust charters when they are formed.
- Beneficiaries and trustees can both suck up trust funds through litigation and anarbitration agreement may be a good solution to this.
- Palm Beach probate litigators know that proper estate planning includes considering use of an arbitration clause.
Mediation
- In contrast to arbitration a court can order parties to go through mediation with or without a prior agreement.
- Mediation is non-binding informal settlement usually conducted through a prior selected neutral mediator.
- If parties cannot agree on a mediator the court will usually appoint one.
- Professional mediators in Delray and West Palm Beach know that a neutral approach can comfort both parties into reaching a settlement without the expense of trial or arbitration.
Resnick v. Weinstein & Sons
- The Fourth District Court of Appeals filed its opinion in the case of Resnick v. J. Weinstein and Sons Inc., today April 29, 2015.
- This appeal pitted father against son in a dispute over an order compelling arbitration and appointing the parties’ accounting firm as arbitrator to decide a disagreement regarding contested loans.
- Based upon the language of the parties’ settlement agreement the appellate court reversed the trial court and ordered that mediation take place first.
Want to learn more? Check out the entire case here.