Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

Re: Submitting a motion to the courts

The answer is "no". The request needs to be made within the arbitration, not before the court. The whole point of stipulating in the contract to binding arbitration is so that the court system need not be used.

The fact that a motion to compel arbitration has been filed and directed at you tells me that you have resisted arbitration for some reason. Unless you can make a valid argument that you are not obligated by contract to submit the dispute to arbitration, you would be well advised to stipulate before the hearing. Here's why - the court is empowered to issue monetary sanctions against you for your wilful refusal to arbitrate. You need to be cognizant. There are a variety of procedural and substantive hurdles for the other side to jump through, but if they seek sanctions in the right way, you could end up owing several thousand dollars in costs and attorneys' fees -- just for your refusal to submit to arbitration.

Once you are in arbitration, you will need to ask the arbitrator for a limited amount of discovery - just to let you get the documents you want. It is entirely up to the arbitrator. Unless the contract permits discovery (which is unlikely - and if you are using the standard C.R.A. contract, it doesn't), no party is entitled to discovery as a matter of right. You will need to beg for it.

Real estate disputes can be complicated and full of traps for the inexperienced. You should probably get yourself an attorney. We are real estate litigators with extensive experience in disputes arising out of transactions. If you would like a no charge consult, please call or email.

Good luck.

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Re: Submitting a motion to the courts

I'm going to give you a slightly different answer, because I sense in your question that you are already in the court system -- i.e., that you are not off in binding arbitration yet. If that is the case, you have the right to issue discovery requests, just the same as you would with any other litigation. You can ask them to tell you what documents you have and also ask them to produce the documents; you can also issue "interrogatories", which are questions. Generally, the other side has 30 days after you ask for the documents or issue the interrogatories to give you the information/documents. Once you get into arbitration, you can also ask the arbitrator to order the other side to cooperate with discovery, but you could do this before you get there.

I hope that's helpful. Please feel free to contact me if you have any other questions. Any attorney who does real estate work is used to arbitration as well as litigation and can help you with the discovery phase, so you should consult with an attorney in your area.