An arbitration clause commits the parties to arbitrate specified disputes. Its scope, the rules and administrator, the number of arbitrators, cost allocation, and any class waiver are all defined by the clause itself.
Delegation provisions assign questions of arbitrability to the arbitrator rather than the court, which changes who decides whether a dispute must be arbitrated at all.
Alternative Names:
Arbitration Agreement, Arbitration Provision
Why it Matters?
These clauses appear in nursing home admission agreements, employment contracts, consumer agreements, and commercial contracts, and enforcement is frequently the first substantive fight in the case. In long-term care litigation the recurring issue is authority: whether the family member who signed at admission had legal capacity to bind the resident. That question, not the clause's language, decides most of these disputes.
Frequently Confused with
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
Can an arbitration clause be challenged?
Who decides whether a dispute is arbitrable?
