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(Article from Insurance Law Alert, May 2015)

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Last month, Delaware enacted the Delaware Rapid Arbitration Act ("DRAA"), a statute that seeks to expedite dramatically the arbitration process by establishing strict completion deadlines, limiting court intervention, and imposing financial penalties on arbitrators for failure to issue an award within 120 days of commencement of arbitration. See Chapter 58, Title 10, Delaware Code. More specifically, the DRAA eliminates interim challenges to the arbitration process and, if the parties agree, the post-award confirmation process. Specifically, if an arbitration agreement waives appellate review, the final award is automatically confirmed five business days after the award date. If review is not waived, awards are automatically confirmed within twenty days of the issuance of the arbitration decision, unless one of the parties appeals the award within fifteen days of the award’s issuance. Such challenges are limited to direct appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court. The DRAA is available for most disputes involving at least one business organized under Delaware law or with its principal place of business in Delaware. However, the Act does not apply to consumer, homeowner and most shareholder actions. When contracting parties choose to invoke the DRAA, they are free to customize the structure of arbitration, including the number of arbitrators, the choice of substantive law and the location of arbitration.