Lori Sanford
Lori Sanford, Esq., M.B.A. is a full-time arbitrator and mediator with a reputation for resolving even the most complex disputes with clarity, fairness, and efficiency. Over the course of her career, Lori has presided over several hundred arbitrations and mediations, earning the trust of parties and counsel alike for her thorough preparation, sharp judgment, and steady, collaborative style.
Lori serves as an Arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association, where she sits on both the Commercial and Consumer Panels. Her caseload spans some of the most demanding areas of dispute resolution, including consumer cases involving terms of service agreements, lemon law, healthcare payor-payee disputes, employment matters, and mass arbitration proceedings. She has chaired three-arbitrator panels on multiple consumer cases, including a three-day hearing in which she authored the Award on the panel's behalf.
Lori also serves as an arbitrator and mediator for Resolute Systems, LLC, and sits on mediation panels for the California Association of Realtors, the Riverside County Superior Court, the Riverside County Bar Association's Dispute Resolution Service, the American Arbitration Association Consumer Mediation Panel, and the American Arbitration Association California Lemon Law Mediation Panel.
What sets Lori apart is her approach: rigorous case preparation paired with genuine enthusiasm for the work, a collaborative style that puts parties at ease, and communication skills that keep every stage of the process clear and efficient. The result is dispute resolution that is not only fair, but fast and cost-effective — giving clients the confidence that their matter is in capable hands.
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full time neutral in Alternative Dispute Resolution
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With experience as a trial attorney in Los Angeles and New York, and as a full-time neutral since 2009, Lori has handled a wide range of civil cases across numerous subject areas, including:
- Business and Commercial: Disputes involving breach of contract, transportation carriers, business ownership, property issues, and conversion.
- Financial Services: Breach of financial agreements, accounting and other billing disputes, and collections.
- Consumer: Disputes regarding interpretation of terms of service or terms of use agreements, retail sales installment contracts, lemon law, rideshare apps, solar installation, cryptocurrency, and mass arbitrations with vehicle manufacturers and delivery services.
- Healthcare Industry: Payor-payee disputes, network provider agreements, emergency injunctive requests to remain in-network, equipment purchases, and business asset disposition.
- Employment: Wage and hour disputes, misclassification, discrimination, retaliation.
- Personal Injury: Private arbitration of uninsured/underinsured motorist claims, motor vehicle accidents, slip-and-falls, elder abuse, professional liability (dental, legal, medical malpractice), dog bites, premises liability, property damage, and wrongful death.
- Real Estate: Residential purchase agreements, failure to disclose, mold, nuisance, construction defects, contractor claims, HOA disputes, and home inspections.
Lori is an active member of the Inn of Court where she serves as a board member and team leader in an organization that promotes civility between the bench and bar. She has led a community outreach program for the last two years which brings a panel of judges and attorneys to a local middle school allowing these students to have their first positive interaction with the law. Lori was active with her local bar association (the Desert Bar Association) where she served as Bar President (2022-2023), Board trustee (2017-2024), Mediation Chair (2017-2024) and Fee Arbitration Chair (2017-2020). As the mediation chair, Lori administered the First Friday Voluntary Settlement Conference program for the Superior Court of California, County of Riverside for 15 years (2009-2024). Lori continues to volunteer for Court settlement days.
Lori has served as an adjunct professor at La Sierra University’s Zapara School of Business, teaching business law to medical professionals in an MBA program at Eisenhower Medical Center, where she also earned her own MBA with a specialization in healthcare management.
