DENVER — Colorado legislative Democrats tried and failed to pass arbitration reform two years ago when control of the House and Senate was split between their party and Republicans. That effort returns this week, however, and Democrats who control all the levers of power at the Capitol feel a lot better about their chances.
On 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold the first hearing on Senate Bill 93, sponsored by Democratic Sens. Mike Foote of Lafayette and Steve Fenberg of Boulder, which would represent the most substantial changes made to the practice of arbitration in Colorado since more companies began mandating it as a dispute-resolution method with employees and customers 10 to 15 years ago. The bill would not curtail the practice, but it would create conflict-of-interest standards for arbitrators similar to those now in place with judges, would allow more transparency into arbitrators’ case history and would ban practices such as requiring arbitration out of state.
The goal, advocates said when introducing the measure at a Jan. 15 news conference, would be to level a playing field that they consider slanted now to businesses that can choose arbitrators they may have used repeatedly without any input from the other parties in a dispute. A recent study in University of California-Davis Law Review found that 81 of the 100 largest companies in the country employ arbitration agreements as a way to keep such disputes from ending up in court.
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