A Practical Guide to Arbitration Case Management

Why independent arbitrators need a system

Administered cases come with an institution that handles intake and correspondence. Ad hoc and independently managed matters do not. The neutral (often with one assistant) becomes the case administrator: receiving filings, tracking deadlines, labeling exhibits, recording hearing time, and preparing orders.

When that work lives across email, a shared drive, a spreadsheet, and a word processor, small mistakes compound: a missed submission, an exhibit labeled twice, or a fee balance nobody updated.

1. Intake: one place for every submission

Give counsel a single, consistent way to submit documents. A one-way upload link lets parties deliver files without creating an account, and without being able to see anything else in the matter.

• Send each party its own upload link and revoke it when the submission window closes.
• Confirm receipt automatically so counsel is not left wondering.
• Flag new submissions until someone on your team has reviewed them.

2. Exhibits: number once, track admission

Adopt a consistent numbering convention (for example C-001 for Claimant, R-001 for Respondent, J-001 for Joint) and keep admission status beside each exhibit. A master exhibit list you can export at any point avoids reconciling versions before the hearing.

3. Deadlines and the procedural calendar

Every procedural order produces dates. Record them as calendar events tied to the matter, and export them to your personal calendar so they appear alongside the rest of your schedule.

4. Hearing day timekeeping

Where parties are allotted hearing time, a chess-clock approach keeps the record fair: track Claimant and Respondent time separately, keep tribunal time off both clocks, and preserve a daily log you can share if allocations are disputed.

5. Orders and the award

Start procedural orders from a template (scheduling, protective, discovery, pre-hearing) and fill in the specifics. Keep drafts clearly marked as drafts until you finalize them, and export in a formal format with a proper caption.

AI can help summarize lengthy filings or organize a draft, but the findings and the decision must always be the arbitrator's own.

6. Fees, deposits, and closeout

Record deposits received and time billed against each matter so remaining balances are always current. At the end of the case, assemble a closing binder — orders, exhibits, accounting, and pleadings — for your records.