Arbitration
Sole, party-appointed, co-arbitration.
I accept all three in commercial matters. This page covers how much process the dispute needs, whose rules it runs under, and how the award gets written.
- Q.Med
- ADRIC / ADRIO designation
- JD + ML
- Legal training and engineering practice
- EN · FA
- Bilingual practice
- Q.Arb
- ADRIC / ADRIO designation
Appointments
Three forms.
Commercial matters. I do not accept family arbitration.
- Sole arbitrator
- One arbitrator, appointed by agreement or by the mechanism the contract names.
- Party-appointed
- Appointed by one side to a three-member tribunal, deciding with the other two.
- Co-arbitration
- Sitting with co-arbitrators, usually where the matter spans more than one discipline.
Tracks
How much process the dispute needs.
Settled with the parties before the first procedural order, not defaulted to.
- Documents only
- No hearing. Written submissions, the documentary record, and an award. The right track where the dispute is about what the contract says rather than about what happened.
- Expedited
- A compressed timetable fixed at the outset, with page limits and a short hearing. Chosen when the commercial cost of the dispute staying open exceeds the value of a full process.
- Full hearing
- Pleadings, disclosure, witnesses, experts, oral argument. Where the facts are genuinely contested and someone has to hear them tested.
Rules
Under whose rules.
The ADRIC Arbitration Rules. The ADR Institute of Canada adopted a new edition effective 1 March 2025, alongside an arbitrator appointment protocol and a set of forms — notice to arbitrate, request to administer, request for the appointment of an arbitrator, urgent interim measures, challenge to an arbitrator, notice of appeal.
Or ad hoc, or whatever the contract names. Where a contract names a rule set, a seat and a language and leaves the rest to the tribunal, that works.
I will not run a process whose shape nobody agreed to in advance.
Awards
In writing, with reasons.
An award should be in writing and give reasons — what was in dispute, what the record showed, and why the conclusion follows. An award that announces a result without the reasoning is not much use to the party that lost, and it is no use at all to the relationship that has to survive it.
The date the award is due is fixed in the first procedural order rather than left open.
No number is published here: a turnaround time advertised in advance of a record is a guess dressed as a commitment.
Fees
Published in full.
Hourly, hearing day, and flat fees for documents-only and expedited matters at two levels of complexity. The cancellation schedule is on the same page.
Next step
Start with a call.
Tell me the shape of the matter and who is involved, and I will tell you whether I am the right neutral for it. Inquiries are answered within two business days.