§ 1250.420.Resolution of Dispute By Mediation Or Binding Arbitration

Litigation is not the only path through a condemnation dispute. This section lets the parties agree to send their dispute to mediation with a neutral mediator, or to binding arbitration by a neutral arbitrator — the latter subject to Chapter 12's arbitration procedures (commencing with § 1273.010).

Nonbinding arbitration works differently. The arbitrator's decision becomes final unless, within 30 days after that decision is served, a party moves the court for a trial of the eminent domain proceeding. Electing that trial is not free of risk: if the resulting judgment is not more favorable to the moving party than the arbitration decision was, the court orders that party to pay the other parties nonrefundable costs and fees — unless paying them would create a hardship substantial enough that imposing them would not serve the interest of justice.

Those cost-shifting consequences reach three categories: the costs listed in § 1033.5 incurred from the time of electing trial (without disturbing whatever costs a defendant could otherwise recover under § 1268.710 for the period before that election, apart from apportionment costs under § 1260.220(b), which remain recoverable whenever incurred), the reasonable costs of expert witnesses who are not regular employees of a party, and the compensation the parties paid the arbitrator.