ADR and Mediation

Plaintiff, a resident of Georgia, filed personal injury case for injuries from motor vehicle accident; matter was subject to nonbinding mandatory arbitration. During the morning of the arbitration hearing, Plaintiff called her attorney to advise that she was driving to hearing from Georgia but would arrive late due to a snowstorm en route.  Plaintiff's counsel then proceeded with the hearing in her absence, while another attorney from that office presented an emergency motion for extension of time which court denied it because arbitration hearing had already begun. Plaintiff (who arrived 4 hours after hearing had begun) made requisite showing that her failure to appear was not in bad faith, and was not found to be a deliberate and pronounced disregard for the rules and the court. Court abused its discretion in imposing sanction of precluding Plaintiff from rejecting the arbitration award entered for Defendant. (MIKVA and WALKER, concurring.)

Plaintiff filed civil complaint against several defendants based on his purchase of a vehicle. Court properly granted dealership's motion to compel arbitration, after finding that Plaintiff signed arbitration agreement as part of his vehicle purchase.Section 2(a) of the Uniform Arbitration Act calls for only a summary determination of the issues, and does not require an evidentiary hearing. Hearing on motion to compel arbitration was sufficient. Court's factual finding that Plaintiff signed arbitration agreement was a substantive determination of whether it was valid and whether it was forged.Court did not abuse its discreiton in granting motion to compel.(HOLDRIDGE, concurring; McDADE, dissenting.)

Plaintiff filed complaint alleging that Defendants were negligent in management of her IRA. Parties' contract as to management of IRA included an agreement to arbitrate disputes stemming from the contract.Plaintiff acknowledged that, prior to signing account application, she understood that Defendants were agreeing to open and manage her IRA account in exchange for her agreement to arbitrate disputes arising from management of her account. Physical attachment is not required for a separate document to be incorporated by reference. Documents as a whole reveal intent of the parties to be bound to arbitration provisions. (WELCH and MOORE, concurring.)

Court properly granted motion of Defendant rehabilitation facility to compel arbitration of the negligence claims that Plaintiff filed against it. Affidavits and admission packet provides sufficient facts to support claim of Defendant that it is a party to the arbitration contract. Plaintiff failed to put forward any evidence of duress. The fact that Plaintiff was not told in advance that Defendant would give him an arbitration agreement to sign is not evidence of duress. factr(PIERCE and GRIFFIN, concurring.)