Originally from Dispute Resolution Journal

This article examines the characteristics and consequences of arbitration in discipline cases involving employees in New York State mental health facilities charged with abusing patients. It describes the kinds of incidents brought to arbitration, many of them of the most reprehensible nature, and those features that distinguish these cases from standard ones, chiefly the appearance of mental patients as witnesses. It reviews the special problems the state has in fulfilling its burden of proof. In conclusion, it focuses on the implications of such cases in connection with standards of proof, and raises questions that go to the special nature of arbitration of patient-abuse cases.