Motion by Plaintiff to Vacate Arbitration Award
TENTATIVE RULING
Within a short time after being appointed as an arbitrator, and well before the arbitration itself, the arbitrator must disclose to the parties “all matters that could cause a person aware of the facts to reasonably entertain a doubt that the proposed neutral arbitrator would be able to be impartial”. C.C.P. §1281.9(a); Haworth v. Superior Court (2010) 50 Cal.4th 372, 381. The evaluation of impartiality is objective. There must be a specific identifiable reason for suspecting the arbitrator would not be impartial, but instead would favor one particular side. It does not matter if a litigant subjectively believes the arbitration might not be able to be impartial. Id. at 389. As the California Supreme Court noted:
The arbitrator cannot reasonably be expected to identify and disclose all events in the arbitrator's past, including those not connected to the parties, the facts, or the issues in controversy, that conceivably mi