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→Introduction
Like mediation and collaborative negotiation, arbitration is a voluntary process. The parties to a dispute must all ''agree'' to use arbitration to resolve their legal dispute. Like those processes, arbitration is also an out-of-court way of resolving problems. However, that's where the similarities between arbitration, mediation and collaborative negotiation end. While the parties to a dispute may have agreed to use arbitration to resolve their dispute, it's the ''arbitrator'' who resolves their dispute, not the parties themselves.
Before the new ''[[Family Law Act]]'' became law in British Columbia, arbitration was rarely used in family law disputes, probably because most lawyers figured that if they have to have somebody make a decision in a case, it might as well be a judge. Arbitration was most often used in the context of commercial, labour, and construction disputes. In other places, such as Ontario and Alberta, the arbitration of family law disputes is well-established and has been for some time. The ''[[Family Law Act]]'', however, made a number of changes to the law that improved the usefulness of arbitration for family law disputes in British Columbia, and the number of people choosing arbitration over going to court has been increasing as a result.
Arbitration offers a number of advantages for resolving family law problems:
As well, it's often faster to get a date for an arbitration hearing than it is for a court hearing. Although short trials of two or three days can usually be booked within ten to twelve months, it can take a year or more to get a date for longer trials because the court is so busy. An arbitration hearing can be booked as soon as everyone has free time in their calendars.