Rule 77.Appeal.

A party who appeared and participated in arbitration can appeal the award by filing a notice of appeal titled as an appeal and motion for trial setting, requesting a trial date, estimating the trial's length, and addressing any jury trial right. That notice must be filed within 20 days after the award, or after the notice of decision becomes an award by default, and the appellant must deposit with the clerk either one day's arbitrator compensation or 10 percent of the amount in controversy, whichever is less — waivable only on a showing of financial inability to pay. Despite being called an “appeal,” the proceeding is a genuine trial on all the issues the arbitrator decided, with no deference to the arbitrator's legal or factual conclusions, though the court can remand for further arbitration proceedings if appropriate. Parties can also waive the right to appeal altogether by stipulating in writing, before the award is entered, that it will be binding.

Discovery taken during arbitration carries over to the appeal, and each side can serve a witness and exhibit list within set deadlines after the notice of appeal, with a total of 80 days after the appeal to complete further discovery under the ordinary discovery rules. The appellant gets the deposit back if the trial de novo produces a result at least 23 percent more favorable than the arbitration award, or if no court order addresses the deposit's disposition; if the trial doesn't clear that 23 percent threshold, the court must instead use the deposit to cover the county's arbitrator compensation, the appellee's taxable costs and reasonable attorney's fees for the appeal, and the appellee's reasonable expert witness fees, with the appellant personally on the hook for any shortfall unless imposing those costs would create a substantial economic hardship inconsistent with the interests of justice.