Judge: Michael P. Linfield, Case: 24STCV05412, Date: 2024-05-09 Tentative Ruling

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Case Number: 24STCV05412    Hearing Date: May 9, 2024    Dept: 34

Defendants’ ex parte to stay action pending motion to compel arbitration.

It has often been touted that arbitrations “promise [] quicker, more informal, and often cheaper [dispute] resolutions for everyone involved” (Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis (2018) 548 U.S. 497, 505; 138 S.Ct. 1612, 1621.) However, that is not the experience of this Court.  In this Court, the parties will be in trial within one year of the Case Management Conference.  It is this Court’s experience that arbitrations usually take 1½ to 2 years from the time a motion to compel arbitration is granted – i.e., twice as long than if the case had been tried to a jury.  Further, this Court has seen no evidence that an arbitration costs less than litigation. 

Defendants were served on March 6, 2024 and filed their answer on the last possible date, April 5, 2024.  They choose not to file a motion to compel arbitration for another month, until May 6, 2024.  This Court does not reserve certain dates for certain motions, so Defendants’ motion to compel arbitration could have been heard 16 court days after filing and service. (See CCP §1005.)  Instead of setting the motion to compel at the first available date, Defendants chose to set its motion to compel for December 23, 2024 – nine months after being served with this complaint.

        Defendants are apparently choosing to delay this case as much as possible.  It appears that Defendants believe that “justice delayed is justice.” 

However, this Court is devoted to seeing that “that substantive justice is fairly, fully and expeditiously achieved.”  (Court’s Trial Orders, ¶I (C).)

If the Court were to grant this ex parte, then any defendant could file a motion to compel arbitration at the beginning of a case, set the motion to be heard months or years later, and simply stay the case indefinitely.  This Court will not continence Defendants’ delaying tactics. 

The Court DENIES Defendants’ ex parte motion to stay the action for more than seven months until their motion to compel arbitration is heard.