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INFORMATION REGARDING RIGHTS AFTER
ATTORNEY-CLIENT FEE ARBITRATION
(Alternative Dispute Resolution)
ADR–105 [Rev. January 1, 2009]
Information Regarding Rights After Attorney-Client Fee Arbitration (continued)
F. What if I am satisfied with the binding arbitration award?
If the arbitration award indicates or says that you owe money and you do not intend to petition to have the award
corrected or vacated (canceled), you should pay the amount that you owe. If you do not pay it, the other party has a
right to get court orders allowing him or her to collect the debt by taking and selling your property and by taking
money from your paycheck and bank account.
If the arbitration award says that you are owed money, you should write the other party a letter and demand
payment.
If you are not paid, you can seek to enforce the arbitration award. See item 3 below.
3. ENFORCEMENT OF BINDING ATTORNEY-CLIENT ARBITRATION AWARDS
There are two procedures for enforcing binding attorney-client fee arbitration awards.
A. If you are the client, you have the right to ask the State Bar to assist you in enforcing the arbitration award if the
following is true:
(1) Your arbitration request was filed on or after January 1, 1994; and
(2) (a) 100 days have passed from service of the award and the award is binding for either of the reasons stated
in paragraph 2A above, or
(b) The award has become a final judgment after a trial following arbitration or after a petition to vacate,
correct, or confirm the award.
You can write or phone the State Bar and request the form Request for Enforcement of an Award.
Contact: Mandatory Fee Arbitration, 180 Howard Street, 6th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105-1639
(telephone: 415-538-2020).
B. Any party who is owed money also has the right to request court orders allowing him or her to take property or
money from the other party's paycheck and bank accounts. To get those court orders based on an attorney-client
fee arbitration award, however, you must first make the arbitration award a judgment of the court. To do this, you
must confirm the arbitration award in court.
(1) What must I do to confirm the arbitration award?
To confirm the arbitration award, you must file a petition to confirm award with the proper court within the
required time limit.
(2) How long do I have to act?
You must file your petition to confirm award within four years after the date the arbitration award was mailed
to you. That date appears at the end of the notice mailed with the award.
(3) What papers must I file? In what court must I file them?
That depends. Has a lawsuit about the fees already been filed?
(a) YES—lawsuit already filed
If a lawsuit about the fees has already been filed, you will file your petition with the same court where the
lawsuit was filed, under the same case number as the lawsuit that is pending, after serving a copy of the
petition on all parties who have appeared in the action as provided by law.
(b) NO—lawsuit not yet filed
If no lawsuit about the fees has been filed, then you must file your petition to confirm the award in the
proper court. If the arbitration was held in California, you must file the petition in the small claims court or
the superior court in the county where the arbitration was held, and then serve the petition and a summons
on all named parties as provided by law.
• If the amount in dispute is $5,000 or less, you can file your petition in the small claims court, using
Judicial Council forms SC-100 and SC-101.
• If the amount in dispute is more than $5,000, you must file your petition in the superior court. You can
use Judicial Council form ADR-103 to do this. (You do not need to file a separate complaint with form
ADR-103 when you are petitioning to confirm a binding arbitration award.)
(4) What are my rights after the arbitration award is confirmed?
When the arbitration award is confirmed, it becomes a judgment of the court. Once you have a judgment, you
have a right to enforce the judgment. That means you can get court orders allowing you to collect your money.
Enforcing judgments can be very technical and very complicated. The court has forms to use for this
procedure.
For your protection and privacy, please press the Clear This Form button
after you have printed the form.