AF recently facilitated its August Arbitrator workshop with over 490 member arbitrators in attendance. The purpose of these 30-minute workshops is to drive decision quality by:

• Sharing information with arbitrators on recent decision quality trends and drivers.
• Answering questions arbitrators may have on hearing cases.

August’s topics and key takeaways included the following:

Comparative Negligence:

• Your decision should address comparative negligence arguments.
• Cases are not always 100%/0%. Apply comparative negligence when appropriate.
• Do not act as an advocate for any party.
• Weigh all evidence submitted and explain your findings. 

Proving Damages:

• AF Rule 3-6 allows for hearing informality and does not impose strict rules of evidence. 
• Arbitrators should consider all evidence submitted by the parties. 
• Decisions should be made based on the arbitrator’s assessment of the evidence. 
• In some cases, invoices and/or photographs may be necessary to prove damage.

Policy Limits/Additional Exposures:

• Additional Exposures: Damages not sought in the arbitration filing. 
• Types of additional exposures include:
  • Paid amount 
  • Unpaid amount
  • Undetermined 
• When deciding if the exposure qualifies as a paid amount, the payment does not need to be shown as cashed. 
• It is the responding party’s responsibility to properly raise and support its policy limits and any applicable additional exposures.

Rental and Loss of Use:

• Both rental damages and loss of use could be recoverable for the same claim. 
• Does the respondent’s evidence support loss of use if not recoverable?
• Does Alpha’s evidence support the recovery of both rental and loss of use for this filing?

Quick Tips
Payments: 

• Prior Payments: Payments made by the responding party that are supported as cleared, cashed, honored, or paid via Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). This also includes double-dip situations. 
• Additional Exposures: Damages not being sought in the arbitration filing that would be paid from the responding party’s policy limits. 

Jurisdiction:

• In Jurisdiction: The matter is within your authority as an AF arbitrator to decide liability coverage and/or damages.
• Out of Jurisdiction: The matter falls outside of AF’s authority to decide liability coverage and/or damages.

Rule 2-10:

• A jurisdictional exclusion is waived if it is available when the deferment is made but is not asserted. However, this does not prohibit the responding company from subsequently asserting a jurisdictional exclusion at the time it becomes available.

Our next arbitrator workshop will be held on October 27 and October 29 at 2 p.m. ET. Visit the Training Enrollment page to enroll. We hope to see you there!