Impracticability of Clause Mandating 30-Day Resolution after Arbitrator Selection

A federal court in the Western District of North Carolina recently held that an arbitration clause that required a dispute be resolved in a 30-day time frame after the arbitrator selection was enforceable. The court based its conclusion on the clause’s incorporation of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) rules providing the arbitration panel with discretion to adjust the schedule and condition that an award should be vacated if the panel unreasonably refused to grant a postponement or failed to hear pertinent evidence.