The Task Force was formed in 2008 as the result of Colloquium presentations commencing at the BLS Spring meeting in 2008 and ending at the DRS meeting in 2009. The Chair was named Chair of the BLS Task Force and the DRS Subcommittee and several joint meetings were held in New York City and by conference call in 2009. The joint meetings resulted in an a Preliminary Report dated April 1, 2010 and an "Exposure Draft" of Supplementary Arbitration Rules for Commercial Finance Transactions, which were presented at the BLS Spring Meeting in Denver in April of 2010 for review and comment by members of the Section and by members of the commercial finance industry. A number of comments were received at the BLS Spring Meeting and thereafter and a Final Report and associated Supplementary Arbitration Rules was prepared. The Final Report and associated Supplementary Arbitration Rules, as well as the prior drafts and supplementary materials, can be obtained from the Task Force web site at www.ABA-Finance-Arb.org.
Serious problems with litigation in the United States were noted by the College of Trial Lawyers and the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System in their Final Report dated April 15, 2009. Arbitration awards are also more readily enforceable across national boundaries than judgments of courts. Also, ethical requirements in many states require that lawyers (including commercial finance lawyers) consider and advise their client on alternative dispute resolution. Given these circumstances, attorneys should consider these techniques and advise their clients. The purpose of the Task Force was to highlight and demonstrate the use of these techniques in a wide variety of commercial finance transactions and provide tools for use by the business lawyer to fashion mechanisms and to advise clients of policy choices that make sense in these transactions and reduce inefficiency and costs of dispute resolution.
