Where do they hold these UDRP hearings? Around the country or in Washington D.C. How many hours of research and writing is involved with a typical defense of a domain name?
The hearings aren't face to face. The complainant submits .DOC or .PDF files, you submit your own, and they send 'em to arbitrators who -- I'm guessing -- deliberate via conference call and write up the decision.
There is no "typical" defense. The amount of time depends on how familiar you are with relevant prior cases. For most common fact patterns, I don't have to do any research.