Managing the Battlefield, Part 2: The Uniform Construction Arbitration Agreement

In the first part of this two-part series, we examined the current landscape of federal and state law regarding arbitral consolidation and joinder, and we emphasized the problems that frequently arise in construction and other large multiparty projects. Our conclusion was that attorneys who care about efficiency and predictability would be reckless to rely solely on the common law or arbitration statutes. If you want to ensure that you will be able to coordinate multiple parties and claims into a single proceeding, you have only one reliable option: to put consistent consolidation and joinder provisions in a written agreement signed by all parties. In this second article, we provide and describe our suggestion for what this arbitration agreement should look like.