Here is an article that is geared more towards a member of the legal community.

It is all the rage these days to complain that arbitration has become too much like litigation. Arbitration takes too long. It is too expensive. It involves too much discovery. It requires too many briefs. It takes too much time to schedule a hearing and too much time to get a decision. It has acquired all the detriments of court litigation but without the right to appeal. Complaints of this sort abound.

In many respects, such complaints are valid. At least they accurately reflect the reality of how many arbitrations are conducted these days, under the governance of various sets of rules used by many arbitration providers.