American Arbitration Assoc. Notes New Reinsurance Dispute Rules

The American Arbitration Association (AAA) announced the introduction of new supplementary rules designed to guide arbitration procedures in reinsurance disputes and streamline the umpire selection process.

Recognizing the need for an enhanced umpire selection process, the AAA developed the Supplemental Rules for the Resolution of Intra-Industry U.S. Reinsurance and Insurance Disputes.

“We developed these rules to provide a streamlined, simpler way for
parties to a reinsurance dispute to select an umpire and maximize the
benefits of arbitration,” Brian Winn, vice president of the American
Arbitration Association, said. “We anticipate the availability of these rules will help cut down costly delays and enable parties to settle disputes more efficiently.”

The AAA’s arbitration procedures are frequently required in many
industry contracts, and the AAA maintains a select National Roster of Umpires consisting of insurance and reinsurance professionals. All Roster members are active or retired executives and officers of insurance or reinsurance companies, or have at least 10 years of experience in those industries.

The AAA’s Procedures are user-oriented as the parties to a dispute
decide what level of service they need. Those levels of service include:

* List Only: Provides parties with one list of up to 12 arbitrators/umpires;
* List With Appointment: Provides parties with a list of umpires for
review and handles appointment of arbitrator/umpire based on the
parties’ mutual selection;
* Full Service Administration: Consists of AAA serving as the administrator for the arbitration in accordance with the procedures set forth in the new supplemental rules, as well as AAA’s Commercial
Arbitration Rules.