§ 25-2603.Proceedings to compel or stay arbitration.

Section 25-2603 is the mechanism for getting a reluctant party into — or out of — arbitration. On application by a party who shows a valid arbitration agreement under section 25-2602.01 and the other side’s refusal to arbitrate, the court orders the parties to proceed with arbitration. If the opposing party denies that any agreement to arbitrate exists, the court does not take the applicant’s word for it: it summarily determines whether an agreement exists, and rules for the moving party only if the answer is yes. The flip side works the same way — a party can ask the court to stay an arbitration proceeding on the ground that no agreement to arbitrate exists, and a genuine, good-faith dispute over that question gets a prompt, summary trial before the court either stays the arbitration or orders the parties to proceed with it.

Once a court proceeding raises an issue that is also subject to arbitration, the statute channels that issue into whichever court already has the case, if one does, rather than starting a second proceeding elsewhere; only when no such action is already pending does a party file the arbitration application in any court of competent jurisdiction, subject to the venue rule in section 25-2619. And once an order compelling arbitration issues, or an application for one is pending, the statute requires the related court action or proceeding to be stayed as to the arbitrable issue, whether that means the whole case or just a severable part of it.

One more protection favors arbitration going forward: a court cannot refuse to order arbitration on the theory that the underlying claim looks weak or lacks merit, and it cannot demand that the moving party first show grounds for the claim it wants arbitrated. The only question at this stage is whether a valid agreement to arbitrate exists, not who is likely to win.