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46 M A Y 2 0 1 9 w w w . c a n a d i a n l a w y e r m a g . c o m T O P 1 0 A R B I T R A T I O N C H A M B E R S T hough he enjoyed his work as a commercial litigator, Allan Stitt found clients were rarely satisfied with the results. If they won — well, big deal, it was inevitable anyway. And if they lost, they felt betrayed. Litigation wasn't appearing, to him, an effective path to resolution. "Winning didn't feel nearly as good as losing felt bad," says Stitt, president and CEO of ADR Chambers. It was a common refrain from those leading the 2019 Top 10 Arbitration Chambers that the catalyst for making the transition to ADR was the sorry state of the civil justice system, recently degraded even further by delays stemming from the Jordan decision. "What we've really seen in the last 20 years is a quiet revolution in a civil justice system, where the expectation of counsel and their clients is that you're more likely to see your case resolved in a meeting room than in a courtroom," says Paul Torrie, founder and president of top arbitration chamber Global Resolutions, which he founded in 1996 and which has since grown to a panel of 16. Global Resolutions does arbitration in every area but family and labour law, and it offers mediation and class action services. But there is a movement to continue the momentum toward faster, more efficient, less expensive dispute resolutions and a schism in the collective vision of where ADR needs to go. Stitt and others at the top arbitration chambers see change in the future of ADR, but they say professionals in the practice often disagree on the form it should take. Artificial intelligence tools are quickly becoming sophisticated enough to replace the flesh-and-blood meeting room negotiations, but at what cost? Some in the practice say that businesses want fast results and it's the job of arbitration chambers to deliver them. Others say that due process cannot be sacrificed for expediency. FASTER, CHEAPER WITH LESS PROCESS Businesses appreciate the efficiency of ADR for their disputes and arbitration chambers are there to help make it happen By Aidan Macnab