§ 1141.30.Construction of Chapter

This section draws the line the whole batch has been circling: judicial arbitration under this chapter is a different animal from private arbitration. Section 1141.30 states that this chapter isn't to be construed in derogation of Title 9 of this part, commencing with § 1280, the body of law governing arbitration agreements parties enter into by contract, and that the two are mutually exclusive and independent of each other.

The practical difference runs deep. Title 9 arbitration comes from a private agreement between the parties, typically produces a binding result enforceable much like a final judgment, and offers only narrow grounds for court review. This chapter's judicial arbitration, by contrast, is a court-annexed program, mandatory for qualifying cases regardless of any agreement between the parties, that produces a nonbinding award any party can walk away from by requesting a trial de novo under § 1141.20, subject only to § 1141.21's cost-shifting if the trial de novo doesn't improve that party's position.

Because the two programs are mutually exclusive, a case arbitrated under this chapter doesn't also get treated as though it were governed by Title 9's private-arbitration rules, and vice versa — a private arbitration agreement between the parties doesn't automatically satisfy, or get displaced by, this chapter's mandatory arbitration requirements.