The Ninth Circuit might be fine with it, but at least if you're in Justice Wiley's division, you better not be even the tiniest bit late in paying your arbitration fees.
Because if so, you've waived the right to compel arbitration.
The facts are straightforward. Plaintiff filed a lawsuit in court, defendants moved to compel arbitration and won, and the arbitration hearing was eventually scheduled to occur on August 5, 2021. The AAA rules say that arbitration hearing fees are due sixty days beforehand, which means in this case they were due on June 4. On July 7, plaintiff asked if defendants had paid yet, and the next day, the AAA case manager said they hadn't. So the AAA did a conference call with the parties and set a new payment due date of July 14.
But Plaintiff figured this was his shot to get out of arbitration entirely. An hour after the call, he said that he was withdrawing from the arbitration pursuant to CCP 1281.98, which says that if the defendant doesn't pay the fees, plaintiff can go to court.
Defendant promptly paid the fees a couple of days later, before the new July 14 deadline, and the AAA panel said that was fine.
But Justice Wiley says: Nope. The arbitrators may well feel like extending the deadline and getting their fees. But the CCP means what it says. If you snooze, you lose. Defendants didn't pay on time, so Plaintiff can go back to court.
So, to reiterate: Don't be late.
