Arbitration Services

Murray Miskin is one of Canada’s most well known domestic and international arbitrators. He graduated Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto in 1979 and has been a practicing lawyer in Ontario, Canada since 1981 working mainly in civil litigation.  He became actively involved in conflict resolution through arbitration as a lawyer soon after his call to the Bar and has taught arbitration courses since 1985.  As a junior lawyer at a Toronto law firm in 1984, Murray Miskin was asked to develop course materials and teach an advanced arbitration course for the Arbitrators Institute of Ontario.  A similar course had not been offered for several years.  Murray Miskin developed a new course which became the model for arbitration training in Canada.  The Miskin courses were first taught at the University of Toronto through the School of Continuing Studies for the Arbitrators’ Institute of Canada which has evolved into the Arbitration and Mediation Institute of Canada and then the ADR Institute of Canada. He continues to be the primary arbitration instructor in Ontario for ADR Institute Certified, “Comprehensive Arbitration Training Course” now offered annually in downtown Toronto. Due to Covid the 2020 course was cancelled and the October 2021 and 2022 and 2023 courses were entirely online but still in a seminar format. An combined online and in person course has been scheduled for October 28 to November 1, 2024 with co-instructor Dana Hirsh.

Murray Miskin first acted as an arbitrator in 1987 when selected by two of his former students, who were experienced arbitrators and also real estate brokers and appraisers, to chair a three member arbitration tribunal for a commercial lease renewal rent dispute. Since then Murray has been arbitrator in a number of construction arbitrations, condominium employment and other commercial arbitrations, and also family law, estate and environmental arbitrations.  In the mid 1990s Murray conducted his first international arbitration hearing in Toronto, after being appointed by the court in Florida to determine a franchise product contract dispute with a Florida based franchisor and an Alberta franchisee.

When a new Condominium Act for Ontario came into effect in 2001 bringing mandatory mediation and arbitration of all condominium disputes Murray became extensively involved in condominium arbitration and training mediators and arbitrators with regard to the Condominium Act dispute resolution process.  He has arbitrated a large number of condominium cases. His condominium litigation experience goes back to 1982 where he was junior counsel in a dispute over construction quality between the unit owners and the developers of 110 Bloor Street West in Toronto. Murray Miskin was ready to enter this new ADR field as soon as plans were made for mandatory mediation and arbitration of condominium disputes before the enactment of the Condominium Act of 1998 which became law in Ontario in 2001.  Between 1998 and and 2001 he presented seminars in the condominium industry about the new procedures and trained leading condominium lawyers in Arbitration. He went on to arbitrate many condominium cases since the Condominium Act was proclaimed.  Only one of his decisions was appealed with the decision fully upheld by the Judge hearing the appeal and again by the Ontario Court of Appeal. Murray Miskin has applied his own personal experience as a condominium resident in Toronto and in Peterborough and three years as the first President of a large Toronto condominium’s Board of Directors.  He was appointed to take over as arbitrator in a lengthy condominium dispute, where the original arbitrator was appointed a judge and had to withdraw from the case, creating a difficult transition requiring special skills from the new arbitrator.  He has carefully used mediation, and other methods to successfully resolve disputes while acting as arbitrator. His written Arbitration Awards are known for clarity and concise writing.

Murray Miskin has received international recognition and has won awards  in the field of arbitration, mediation and ADR, and conducts international commercial arbitrations. The international work includes arbitrator training in the Caribbean which is under development.  Mr. Miskin has travelled across the Caribbean and met with local lawyers and others to discuss and promote arbitration. He operates a Caribbean focused ADR website adr.tc. Murray Miskin has mediated for the Government of the Turks and Caicos Islands.  He attended the 2014 American Bar Association (ABA) dispute resolution conference in Miami as a representative of the Canadian Bar Association’s National ADR Section Executive, and was Program Chair for the ABA annual dispute resolution conference held April 2015 in Seattle.  Murray Miskin is ready to travel as needed to conduct arbitrations or provide arbitration training. Our closest major urban center for arbitration is Toronto, Ontario Canada where Murray regularly conducts arbitrations and offers arbitration courses.  Murray Miskin is a member of the Toronto Commercial Arbitration Society. With the Covid-19 pandemic he was ready to shift to online proceedings because of work done in earlier years to develop a process for online dispute resolution before the technology available was sufficiently developed for most purposes. He now uses Zoom primarily to conduct proceedings but also has an Arbitration and Mediation facility available for use by parties at no extra charge in Oshawa, Ontario.

Call 416-492-0989 or toll free 1-877-428-8000 for further information about Murray Miskin’s ADR services and availability. We are now offering arbitration services online and we expect many arbitrations will continue to be done post Covid with online components or entirely online. If you are interested in Murray’s arbitrator services do not contact him directly with any details of the dispute that may create a conflict which prohibits him from acting as arbitrator. Speak with our bilingual assistant Christine McCullough at Extension 112 or email christine@miskinlaw.ca