Are family arbitration proceedings private, unlike a public family court hearing?

Yes, privacy is one of the more commonly cited advantages of family arbitration compared to a typical family court proceeding. Court hearings, and the documents filed in them, are generally open to the public and part of the court record, subject to limited exceptions, whereas arbitration is a private process between the parties and the arbitrator, and the proceedings and the resulting award aren't automatically part of any public record.

This appeals to couples who want to resolve sensitive family issues, such as parenting arrangements, finances, or the details of what led to their separation, without those details being publicly accessible. It's worth understanding, though, that if an arbitration award is later incorporated into a court order, for example to make it enforceable through the usual family court mechanisms, that step can bring at least some aspects of the outcome into the public court record, even if the underlying arbitration process itself remained private. Anyone particularly concerned about privacy should discuss with a family lawyer exactly how private the process, and any resulting court filings, will realistically remain.