Profile

Craig J. Robichaux

Managing Partner

Over my 39 -year career as a litigator, and more recently in the ADR field, I have vast experience dealing with many issues both in and out of the healthcare field. Perspective which aids in empathy is key to being an effective neutral. Other keys to being an effective neutral include creating an environment for effective communication and managing the personalities of people in conflict. What I can bring to the table is a keen ability to focus disputants on the actual problem, including the underlying psychodynamic basis to the dispute, and facilitate them gaining an understanding of the overall conflict and see paths to resolution. Despite having litigated over a hundred of jury trial, and countless judge trials and contested evidentiary motions, I am big proponent of ADR as a more effective means of conflict resolution. As relates to arbitration, I firmly believe that it should not be a substitute for litigation - meaning that the procedures of either state or federal court should not be grafted upon the arbitration process. As a arbitrator, my role is to effectively manage the case and move it to prompt resolution in a cost effective manner. That is why the parties included an arbitration clause in the contract in the first place, right? In the area of serving as a peer review neutral, my philosophy is to provide a "fair hearing" to both sides involved in the process. Lives and careers are at issue, and both sides deserve that commitment. A "fair hearing" means more than just allowing the health system through its MEC to haphazardly assign physicians to the peer review process and to play loose with the charges and evidence. At the same time a physician should be required to answer to his or her peers for allegations of misconduct. A "fair hearing" requires a level of fundamental fairness, and every effort is made to avoid what is generally referred to as a "sham hearing."

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