Handling an appeal from a Texas trial court’s arbitration order is about to be much simpler.
There has been a quirk in Texas law that often forced people to file two separate “appeals” to effectively challenge a trial court’s preliminary order about arbitration: a normal interlocutory appeal to raise a challenge under the Texas Arbitration Act and a parallel writ of mandamus to raise a challenge under the Federal Arbitration Act.
As Victoria VanBuren notes in her roundup of dispute-resolution bill from the Texas Legislature, that is about to change.
One of the bills just sent to the Governor is S.B. 1650, which provides:
Sec. 51.016. APPEAL ARISING UNDER FEDERAL ARBITRATION ACT. In a matter subject to the Federal Arbitration Act (9 U.S.C. Section 1 et seq.), a person may take an appeal or writ of error to the court of appeals from the judgment or interlocutory order of a district court, county court at law, or county court under the same circumstances that an appeal from a federal district court’s order or decision would be permitted by 9 U.S.C. Section 16.
This bill would apply to appeals initiated after August 31, 2009.
2 responses so far ↓
1 D. Todd Smith // Jun 9, 2009 at 7:25 am
This has been a pet peeve of mine for years. Any word on whether/when the Governor will sign? Unfortunately, we can’t take for granted that he will.
2 2009 Texas Legislation on Arbitration and Mediation « Disputing // Dec 16, 2009 at 12:14 pm
[...] H.B. 1083. The bill, authored by Rep. Gary Elkins, states that ”Except as provided by agreement of the parties, a court may not order mediation in an action that is subject to the Federal Arbitration Act (9 U.S.C. Sections 1-16).” Here are the bill’s history and analysis. Find a post by Don Cruse here. [...]
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