Arbitration provisions under contracts for insurance can often provide for a more expeditious and confidential (although not necessarily cheaper) settlement of disputes than passage through the courts. These provisions can either be mandatory or voluntary to the insured (or cedant) and insurer (or reinsurer) bound by the contract.

Furthermore, the procedural rules by which the arbitration will be governed tend to be agile, and usually involve a third party arbitration service (e.g. the International Chamber of Commerce, the Jamaica International Arbitration Centre, the Arbitration and Mediation Court of the Caribbean in Barbados, or the Centro de Arbitragem e Mediação da Câmara de Comércio Brasil-Canadá in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro).