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→Introduction
People can start arbitration right off the bat, as soon as a legal problem has come up, or they can use it to resolve a court proceeding as an alternative to trial. The result of a successful process of arbitration is an arbitrator's ''award''. If litigation has already started, the award can be turned into an order that the parties agree the court will make, called a ''consent order''. If the parties are married, a consent order may make more sense since they'll usually want an order for their divorce at the same time as they're wrapping everything else up.
The parties can meet with their arbitrator on their own or with their lawyers. As an arbitrator, I always appreciate having the parties' lawyers present. I recognize that having the lawyers at the arbitration hearing costs the parties more money, but the lawyers are intimately familiar with how to write briefs, make legal arguments and present evidence, and arbitration hearings with lawyers are usually much shorter than hearings without lawyers. However, there is no rule that you must have a lawyer represent you in arbitration , just like there's no rule that you must have a lawyer represent you in litigation.
The arbitrator has no stake in how the arbitration turns out. The arbitrator must be neutral and have no bias in favour of either party. Most of the time, the arbitrator should have no special connection — business, personal or otherwise — with either party, and the arbitrator must make sure that all parties are aware of any such special connections before they agree to hire the arbitrator.