§ 154.027.Arbitration

The adjudicative end of this subchapter, and it turns on a stipulation made before the hearing.

Each party and counsel present the party’s position before an impartial third party, who renders a specific award.

A specific award is what distinguishes this from the advisory procedures. The neutral decides the case rather than evaluating it.

If the parties stipulate in advance, the award is binding, and it is enforceable in the same manner as any contract obligation.

Enforcement as a contract is the mechanism, which fits a result the parties agreed in advance to accept.

Without that advance stipulation the award is not binding, and serves only as a basis for the parties’ further settlement negotiations.

The timing of the stipulation matters. It must come in advance, so a party cannot wait for the award and then decide whether to be bound by it.

This is not the arbitration statute. Title 7 contains a separate general arbitration chapter with its own confirmation, vacatur and appeal provisions; this section describes a procedure a court may refer a pending case to.

The neutral here decides rather than facilitates, which puts this procedure closest to adjudication among the five in this subchapter.