§ 172.207.Stay of Arbitration and Resort to Other Proceedings

The provision that makes it safe to try conciliation.

Agreeing to conciliate is agreeing to a stay. The parties’ agreement to submit a dispute to conciliation is an agreement to stay a judicial proceeding or arbitration from the beginning of conciliation until its termination.

The stay comes from the agreement itself, without a separate application.

Limitations periods are tolled or extended. Each applicable limitation period, including a period of prescription, stops running for each party on the beginning of a conciliation.

The tolling runs until the 10th day after termination. The extra ten days keep a party from being caught by a deadline that expired during the process.

"Prescription" is included for a reason. Civil law systems use that term for the time bar, and the parties here come from many jurisdictions.

Beginning is defined precisely. Conciliation begins when a party requests conciliation of a dispute and each other party agrees to participate.

Both halves are needed, so a unilateral invitation does not start the clock or the stay.

Without this section conciliation would be risky. A party watching a limitations period run would have to file first and talk later.

Termination dates come from Section 172.208, which fixes the date of each way a conciliation can end.