§ 9-9-71.Adjournments by arbitrators; no meeting outside group

Once the arbitrators start their investigation, this section lets them break and reconvene as needed — day to day, or for a longer stretch — for as long as the ends of justice call for it, until they’ve completed the investigation and reached their award. That’s a different kind of pause than the postponement Code Section 9-9-70 covers before the hearing even starts; this one governs recesses in the middle of the process.

The section also draws a hard line around how the arbitrators may talk about the case. They can’t meet in twos, skip a member, or exclude the referee — any discussion of the case or any issue in it has to happen as a full group with the referee present. That rule reinforces the confidentiality promise each arbitrator already made in the affidavit required by Code Section 9-9-69, and it guards against one arbitrator being worked on privately outside the hearing.