Every practitioner knows that arbitration is a creature of contract, allowing parties to negotiate a framework for private dispute resolution long before any controversies arise. Parties look to arbitration because it offers the efficiency and confidentiality of a private process, with the certainty and convenience of preselected substantive law and a pre-agreed geographic location for the arbitration to take place.
The simple fact that a Florida arbitration is borne out of contract does not mean that the proceeding is exempt from Florida law, however. In fact, the anticipated protection of Florida law is one of the main reasons parties from all over the world — and Latin America in particular — agree to arbitrate under Florida law and within the state.
