Compelling Arbitration is No Longer a Final Appealable Order
Kegler Brown Construction Newsletter February 1, 2001
H.B. 401 was recently passed by the Ohio General Assembly and will become effective March 15, 2001. It reforms the arbitration statute (O.R.C. §2711.02-.03) to make arbitration easier to obtain without protracted litigation.
It eliminates the right of a party aggrieved by the alleged failure of another to perform under an arbitration agreement in a commercial construction contract to have a jury trial of the issue of whether there is an arbitration agreement or a failure to perform under the agreement for arbitration. It provides that the court must hear and determine that issue.
The bill provides that only an order that denies (not an order that grants) a stay of a trial of any action pending arbitration under an arbitration agreement in a commercial construction contract is a final, appealable order.