§ 172.172.Assistance in Taking Evidence

The evidence-gathering bridge between a private tribunal and the public courts.

Two requesters are authorized — the arbitration tribunal, and a party with the approval of the tribunal.

The tribunal’s approval is the gatekeeper. A party cannot use the courts for discovery the tribunal has not sanctioned.

That control keeps the arbitration in charge of its own procedure, which is what parties bargained for when they chose it.

The court may provide assistance according to its rules on taking evidence. It uses its own machinery rather than the tribunal’s.

Assistance is permissive. The court may provide it, so a request is not self-executing.

The court is selected as Section 171.096 provides, which supplies the place-of-filing rules from the domestic chapter.

This is one of the exceptions Section 172.171 contemplates, and it is aimed at support rather than review.

Section 172.105 covers the other half of compulsion, letting the tribunal itself issue a subpoena under Section 171.051.

Together they matter most for third parties. A witness or document custodian who never agreed to arbitrate responds to court process, not to a private tribunal’s request.

Foreign parties are the usual beneficiaries. A tribunal seated in Texas may need evidence from a person in Texas who is a stranger to the arbitration.

The court applies its own evidence rules, which is what makes the assistance workable — a judge is not asked to apply a foreign or institutional procedure.