The practical benefits of using arbitration proceedings to decide legal disputes are, in principle, that:

– third parties and strangers will be excluded and have no access to the arbitration proceedings without the consent of parties; and

– the proceedings, materials disclosed or created during proceedings and the arbitral award cannot be disclosed by the tribunal, parties, their representatives, witnesses or any other individuals attending without the parties’ consent.

By contrast, litigation through the civil courts is neither private nor confidential. In civil courts proceedings and documents are generally open to the public which may be unattractive to those who wish to keep information away from public scrutiny, in respect of the facts of the dispute, itself, or commercially sensitive information.

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