There are a few practical problems with setting up a board of arbitration that would need to be addressed. One is agreement to particate in the arbitration. If the offending party will not agree to it, arbitration is not possible. There is also the matter of enforcing the arbitration when the losing respondent fails to pay the award of damages. In this area that means applying to the court for an affirmation of the arbitrator's award of damages. I have an arbitration case pending right now in which this will be necessary. In which case you still have the jurisdictional problems that we are trying to avoid. Although the process is much shorter that a full scale trial on the merits of the case. It generally requires one or two court appearances at motion calendars. Under the current rules of the American Arbitration Association and/or rules of civil procedure the prevailing party must file the application to affirm within one year after the arbitrator's award of damages. There is also the problem that the offending party may not be a subscriber to SOT, and would have absolutely no reason to agree to participation in arbitration.
There is the potential for slowing the growth of SOT. If potential new title companies are asked to agree to arbitration as a condition of registering with SOT, they may not register. That would mean a slowing of business for all the abstractors.
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