The Proceeding
Focused case management from preliminary hearing through final award.
Mr. Watts manages matters from preliminary hearing through final award. His case-management experience includes structured scheduling orders, proportional discovery, Redfern-style document exchanges, electronically stored information, protective orders, dispositive and other motion practice, expert testimony, evidentiary issues, interim rulings and hearing management.
His approach emphasizes practical commercial judgment, focused case management, efficient presentation of evidence and a fair opportunity for each party to be heard. Party autonomy is respected while proceedings are managed to avoid unnecessary delay and expense.
Mr. Watts renders both standard and reasoned awards grounded in the evidence, the governing law, the arbitration agreement and the applicable rules. He also regularly decides applications for attorney fees and costs, including lodestar analysis and statutory fee claims.
Business and Commercial Disputes
Business matters have included disputes arising from the sale and acquisition of operating companies; private purchase and sale agreements; secured transactions; employment agreements; distribution and supplier relationships; and conflicts involving partnerships, limited liability companies, corporations and other closely held enterprises.
Claims have involved breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, self-dealing, minority oppression, dilution of ownership interests, misappropriation, management and control, accounting, valuation, fraud, misrepresentation and equitable relief.
Real Estate
Real estate matters have included residential and commercial purchase agreements, commercial leases involving single-tenant and multi-tenant properties, quiet title, easements, boundary disputes, adverse possession, encroachments and partition actions among co-owners.
Other issues have included agency duties, title and property conditions, valuation, damages, rescission, specific performance, fraudulent misrepresentation, concealment and failure to disclose material facts. Commercial lease disputes have included triple-net expense allocations and other ownership and occupancy issues.
Construction
Construction matters have included residential and commercial projects involving custom homes, pedestal and post-tension construction, swimming-pool failures, concrete masonry units, concrete flatwork and disputes among drywall, masonry, electrical, HVAC and other trades.
Issues have included workmanship, scope of work and change orders, project termination, coordination among trades, labor and classification disputes, expert testimony and statutory claims. Delay matters have involved critical-path analysis, concurrent delay, ownership of float and force majeure defenses.
Payment disputes have included Miller Act bond claims and prompt-payment issues. Other matters have involved soil compaction, subsidence and related site conditions. Mr. Watts has served as advocate or arbitrator in matters involving owners, architects, general contractors, subcontractors and material suppliers.
Consumer and Financial Matters
Mr. Watts presides over consumer arbitrations involving automobile and product warranties, including claims under the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act and the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. These matters have involved alleged defects, repair histories, manufacturer repurchase obligations, damages and related attorney-fee determinations.
Consumer financial matters have included claims against banks, card issuers and digital-asset platforms involving lending and account practices, electronic funds transfers, unauthorized transactions, account takeovers and cryptocurrency. His experience also includes Fair Credit Reporting Act claims involving furnishers, tradelines and reinvestigation obligations.
Securities and financial-product matters have involved investor suitability, supervisory obligations, risk disclosures and complex financial products.
Hearings and Technology
Mr. Watts is experienced in conducting in-person, virtual and hybrid proceedings, including remote witness testimony, electronic exhibit presentation and multiparty video hearings. His practice is equipped with secure and redundant technology designed to support confidentiality, continuity and effective participation across the principal videoconferencing and case-management platforms.
A Broader Dispute-Resolution Perspective
Mr. Watts also maintains an active mediation practice and has mediated many hundreds of civil disputes in the same subject areas in which he serves as arbitrator. These have ranged from routine claims to multimillion-dollar, multiparty business, commercial, construction, real estate and personal-injury disputes.
That experience provides broad exposure to how parties and counsel investigate, value, present and resolve claims. It also informs his approach to case management, settlement dynamics and the realistic assessment of disputed issues while serving as arbitrator.