Delaware Rapid Arbitration Act–After A Decade, Has Its Day Arrived?

In 2015, Delaware adopted a new statute, the Delaware Rapid Arbitration Act (the "DRAA"), designed to address an identified need of parties for a very rapid and streamlined way to address disputes confidentially and outside the four walls of a courtroom. This new statue replaced an earlier statutory scheme that would have used sitting jurists of Delaware's famed Court of Chancery as decisionmakers in private arbitrations because that statute was found to violate the constitutionally-protected access of the state's citizens to "open courts."

Over the course of the next few weeks, we'll explore in this blog the history behind the DRAA, its key features, the kinds of disputes that are best suited for resolution under the act, how to adopt the DRAA in contracts, and some practice tips for presenting and resolving disputes under the DRAA.