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While California law requires arbitrators to satisfy certain disclosure requirements, the statute does not require that the arbitrator personally execute such written disclosures, according a state court in California.
In Hofmann v. Superior Court, No. B189894, 2007 WL 603101 (Cal. Ct. App. Feb. 28, 2007), Hofmann brought a negligence claim against a surgeon who performed hip replacement surgery on her. An arbitrator dismissed Hofmann's claim, based largely on discrepancies between the facts asserted in a previous workers' compensation claim and the present action.
Hofmann sought to vacate the arbitral award, arguing that the arbitrator had failed to personally sign written disclosures as required by California Law. CAL. CODE CIV. PROC. § 1281.9.
The Court denied the petition to vacate the award, finding no requirement that an arbitrator personally execute disclosure reports. Hofmann relied on Ovitz v. Schulman, 133 Cal.App.4th 830 (Cal. Ct. App. 2005), which called for vacatur of an award where the arbitrator failed to comply with disclosure requirements.
However, this Court held that Ovitz did stand for the proposition that a disclosure report was defective solely because the arbitrator had not personally signed it. Here, the arbitration service made the appropriate disclosures as required by statute, and Hofmann made no allegation that such disclosures were substantively deficient.
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