§ 171.002.Scope of Chapter

The scope section is where a Texas arbitration fight often begins.

Five categories are outside the chapter. A collective bargaining agreement between an employer and a labor union; a small consumer agreement; a claim for personal injury; a claim for workers’ compensation benefits; and an agreement made before January 1, 1966.

The small-agreement exclusion is measured by what the individual gives. It covers an acquisition by one or more individuals of property, services, money or credit where the total consideration furnished by the individual is not more than $50,000.

Two of the exclusions can be opted out of, and the opt-out is demanding. A small agreement comes within the chapter if the parties agree in writing to arbitrate and the agreement is signed by each party and each party’s attorney.

A personal injury claim takes the same signatures plus advice of counsel. Each party must agree in writing to arbitrate on the advice of counsel, and each party and each party’s attorney must sign.

The attorney-signature requirement is the protection. A consumer or an injured person cannot be bound to arbitrate by fine print; a lawyer has to sign the same page.

Workers’ compensation is excluded outright, with no opt-in at all, because that system has its own statutory dispute machinery.

The 1966 date marks the statute’s own beginning, leaving older agreements to the law that governed when they were made.

A closing subsection disclaims any effect on business court jurisdiction. The chapter’s references to that court do not enlarge what it may hear.

None of this decides whether federal arbitration law applies. An agreement outside this chapter may still be governed by other law, which is why the exclusions are litigated as often as they are.