ADR-Mediation as well as Arbiration

I offer LLC owner/members the option of mediation, as well as, arbitration as an alternative to the court system. In my Single Member LLCs it is available for the Potential Manager (a provision I recommend). In Multi-Member LLCs it is available for the LLC owner/members.

When I organized “Form” LLCs only arbitration was available. They require the clients to hire a specific private company to handle any arbitrations and the clients must contact the private company to find out the arbitration rules and procedures to which they have agreed. They required a private company to be hired for any arbitration and the clients to contact the private company to find out the arbitration rules to which they were agreeing..

Now that I draft my own LLC Operating Agreements, I offer mediation and arbitration provisions and rules I have drafted myself. I specifically draft the rules for the type of claims and parties I forsee involved in internal LLC problems. I have put a lot of work into these rules.

When I organized "Form" LLCs, I never considered adding ADR rules, much less drafting them myself.

The aim of my mediation and arbitration rules is to help reduce future LLC expense by leveling the playing field between trail attorneys and other attorneys, keep the process on track, and provide working rules for the process that are familiar to South Carolina attorneys. I believe mediation is quicker and cheaper than arbitration and less likely to break up an LLC because it is not as adversarial in nature. My mediation rules attempt to force the parties into a serious review of the issues in a process that if it fails dovetails into what comes next (arbitration or court).

“I must say that as a litigant I should dread a lawsuit beyond almost anything else short of sickness and death.” Judge Learned Hand, The Deficiencies of Trials to Reach the Heart of the Matter, 1921, in Lectures on Legal Topics 3:89, 105 (1929).