Administration & Procedure

In administering its Arbitration Program, Oklahoma Mediation/Arbitration Service (OMAS) seeks to accentuate the inherent advantages of arbitration viz speed and informality.

If the parties have not yet agreed to arbitrate, then OMAS will use whatever efforts are necessary (including numerous phone calls and letters) to elicit the consent to participate of the non-initiating party or parties.

If the parties have already agreed to arbitrate but have not chosen an arbitrator, then OMAS will appoint a single attorney/arbitrator to conduct the proceeding. This specially trained attorney/arbitrator will have been previously consulted on this matter to insure that there are no conflicts of interest to create even the appearance of bias. This "appoints subject to subsequent veto" approach to choosing arbitrators is intended to eliminate the often time-consuming and therefore expensive approaches which have been used in the past.

OMAS also assumes the entire responsibility for finding a mutually convenient time, date, and location that the parties can agree to. In other words, all the logistical burdens of arranging and scheduling the arbitration proceeding will be borne by OMAS.

OMAS has a paper lean approach to setting up an arbitration. The only piece of paper which is generated to formalize the occurrence of an arbitration proceeding is an Announcement Letter issued by OMAS and addressed and copied to all involved parties and their counsel.

All other procedural underpinnings of the arbitration proceeding (including eliciting the consent of the non-initiating party or parties, the procuring of an arbitrator, and the allocation of the arbitration fee) will typically be handled by telephone calls rather than through letters.

The underlying purpose of this paper lean procedural approach is to take the fullest advantage of the efficiencies offered by the arbitration alternative.

Conducting Of Arbitration Proceedings

Parties seeking arbitration want speed and informality, and that is exactly what the arbitrations sponsored by OMAS provide. Moreover, consistent with the state and federal case law construing the state and federal arbitration acts, OMAS arbitrators will consider documents regardless of any hearsay objections to their admissibility.

High/Low Arbitration: The Best of Both Worlds

Compared to mediation, arbitration offers the advantage of certainty of result, but the disadvantage of loss of control. While in mediation the parties are empowered to decide what figure the case will settle for, in an arbitration proceeding the parties must accept the judgment of the arbitrator.

In a High/Low Arbitration the arbitrator is granted binding authority over the parties so long as his/her award is within certain pre-established parameters. For instance, let us suppose that in a contract case the parties agreed to arbitration so long as the award was no less than $50,000 and no greater than $150,000. In this High/Low Arbitration context, the arbitrator’s award must be between these two figures.

By controlling to some extent the power of the arbitrator and by insuring that the dispute will be resolved, High/Low Arbitration arguably represents the best of both worlds and should be considered as a very useful ADR tool by attorneys.

Attorneys As Arbitrators

One distinguishing factor of the OMAS arbitration panel is that it is exclusively composed of lawyers and, that it is our intention, wherever possible, to have only one arbitrator appointed.

The Award

OMAS will enter an Award shortly after the conclusion of the arbitration hearing. The Award will be memorialized in a written order. No OMAS arbitration proceeding will conclude with the issuance of "Findings of Fact" and "Conclusions of Law."

Court Reporter

The presence of a Court Reporter is at the sole discretion of the parties and the cost for such shall be borne by the parties.

Does OMAS Use A Formal Set Of Rules?

OMAS has deliberately chosen not to have a procedurally intricate set of rules to arrange and conduct its arbitrations by. Rather, this Service incorporates, by reference Oklahoma's Uniform Arbitration Act. OMAS has chosen to do this in order to let the parties and the arbitrator themselves tailor an approach to arbitration which best suits their needs. We have found that this tailor-made approach, rather than an off-the-rack set of rules is more conducive to the spirit and purpose of arbitration. The lack of any certainty on any particular issue is offset by the underlying reference to compliance with Oklahoma's Uniform Arbitration Act.

In lieu of using a formal set of rules, OMAS sometimes uses a Pre-Arbitration Conference. This meeting, attended by counsel for all parties, can best be analogized to a pre-trial conference. A consensus on all pending discovery, procedural, and evidentiary matters will be reached at this meeting and memorialized in a letter under the signature of the arbitrator copied to all parties.

This Pre-Arbitration Conference places more control by the parties over the proceeding, and dramatically lessens the expense of the arbitration process