§ 25-2618.01.Small Claims Court; jurisdiction; when; transfer limited; appeal.

Section 25-2618.01 carves out a small-dollar exception to ordinary arbitration practice. When a controversy otherwise covered by a valid arbitration agreement falls within the jurisdictional amount of the Small Claims Court under section 25-2802, a party may bypass arbitration altogether and submit the controversy to Small Claims Court for resolution under sections 25-2801 to 25-2807. Once a case goes to Small Claims Court this way, it stays there — the statute blocks any transfer of the controversy to the regular docket of the county court under section 25-2805, which otherwise lets a defendant remove a small claims case to the regular docket.

Appeals from a case submitted this way face the same narrow gauntlet that would apply to vacating an arbitration award, adapted to a small-claims judgment. The judgment stands affirmed unless it was procured by corruption, fraud, or other undue means; the judge was evidently partial, corrupt, or engaged in misconduct that prejudiced a party; the judge exceeded his or her powers; the judge unfairly conducted the trial — contrary to section 25-2606 — in a way that substantially prejudiced a party; there was no arbitration agreement, that issue was not already resolved against the challenger under section 25-2603, and the party did not participate in the Small Claims Court hearing without objecting; or the judge was disqualified and, on a timely demand, failed to step aside as the law requires. This mirrors the vacatur standard in section 25-2613 almost point for point, just substituting the judge’s conduct for the arbitrators’.