Chapter 5 - § 5.6 • OTHER SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS FOR VALID ARBITRATION AGREEMENTS

• Jurisdiction: Colorado

§ 5.6 • OTHER SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS FOR VALID ARBITRATION AGREEMENTS

Some states have passed statutes imposing specific requirements for agreements to arbitrate certain types of disputes to be valid and enforceable. These requirements typically are not contained in the state's arbitration act, but rather in sections dealing with specific subjects. Such requirements may include that the arbitration language be in capitals of a defined size, that the parties initial the arbitration provisions in a contract, and other similar provisions.

§ 5.6.1—Health Care Availability Act

For example, in the Colorado Health Care Availability Act, C.R.S. § 13-64-403, Colorado has adopted extensive requirements and restrictions for an arbitration agreement between a patient and a health-care provider to be valid and enforceable:

• A medical malpractice insurer cannot require a health-care provider to utilize arbitration agreements with patients.
• Exemplary damages may be awarded (contrary to C.R.S. § 13-21-201(5)), but any such award may be modified by the district court if excessive or inadequate.
• An arbitration agreement shall state:

It is understood that any claim of medical malpractice, including any claim that medical services were unnecessary or unauthorized or were improperly, negligently, or incompetently rendered or omitted, will be determined by submission to binding arbitration in accordance with the provisions of part 2 of article 22 of this title, and not by a lawsuit or resort to court process except as Colorado law provides for judicial review of arbitration proceedings. The patient has the right to seek legal counsel concerning this agreement, and has the right to rescind this agreement by written notice to the physician within ninety days after the agreement has been signed and executed by both parties unless said agreement was signed in contemplation of the patient being hospitalized, in which case the agreement may be rescinded by written notice to the physician within ninety days after release or discharge from the hospital or other health care institution. Both parties to this agreement, by entering into it, have agreed to the use of binding arbitration in lieu of having any such dispute decided in a court of law before a jury.

• Immediately preceding the signature lines for such an agreement, the following notice must be printed in at least 10-point, bold-face type:

NOTE: BY SIGNING THIS AGREEMENT YOU ARE AGREEING TO HAVE ANY ISSUE OF MEDICAL

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