2022 Revisions to American Arbitration Association Rules

The American Arbitration Association (AAA) has updated its Commercial Arbitration Rules and Mediation Procedures, effective September 1, 2022.  Per AAA’s announcement the changes reflect the input of a wide range of AAA stakeholders, and “standardize important longstanding AAA practices—confidentiality, consideration of consolidation/joinder motions, and civility—as well as revise rules to further promote efficiency, reflect advances in technology, and include where appropriate discussions regarding cybersecurity.”

The AAA highlights five key changes:

1. Consolidation: AAA’s first-ever commercial rule for the consolidation of existing arbitrations or the joinder of additional parties.  New Rule R-8 now explicitly allows a party to file a request to consolidate and establishes a procedure for acting on such requests.
2. Confidentiality: Captures the long-standing requirements of the Code of Ethics for Arbitrators by including a commitment to the confidentiality of arbitration in the Rules, pursuant to new Rule 45(a).  Rule 45(b) specifically permits arbitrators to issue confidentiality orders.
3. Conduct of parties and their representatives: Specifically incorporates into the Rules the AAA’s expectations of civility and professionalism of all participants in arbitrations.
4. Providing arbitrators with the authority to interpret awards: Allows the arbitrator to explain the award (and correct clerical, typographical, or computational errors) on a party’s motion, per an update to Rule R-52.
5. The importance of cybersecurity, privacy, and data protection: Reflects the weight that the AAA places on cybersecurity and recommends that data protection be discussed in the preliminary hearing.

The revised rules include a number of other important changes.  The upper limit dollar threshold for the application of the Expedited Procedures rises from $75,000 to $100,000 and, similarly, the lower limit for application of Large, Complex Commercial Disputes Procedures doubles from $500,000 to $1 million.  Rule R-34 establishes procedures for dispositive motions and Expedited Procedure E-5 prohibits them absent good cause shown and arbitrator permission. Other rule amendments expressly authorize and promote use of videoconferencing. 

These are all welcome changes to promote AAA's goal of an "orderly, economical, and expeditious" procedure for the determination of disputes.  The amended rules can be found here.