Appealability: Denial Of Motion To Compel Mandatory Fee Arbitration Act Arbitration Is Not An Appealable Order

2/1 DCA Also Refuses To Treat It As An Extraordinary Writ Petition From The Denial Order.

            The Mandatory Fee Arbitration Act (MFAA) establishes a system for a client to arbitrate attorney’s fee disputes before local bar associations, with it being mandatory for attorneys if clients so initiate an arbitration but optional if clients do not wish to do so.  Co-contributor Mike was involved in one recently before the Orange County Bar Association, with the arbitration chair indicating that the arbitration panel’s ruling usually conclusively determines about 85% of disputes in that chair’s experience.

            The Second District, Division 1 (in an opinion authored by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Weingart, sitting by assignment), confronted the narrow issue of whether a trial court’s denial of a petition to compel a MFAA arbitration is appealable.  In Levinson Arshonsky & Kurtz LLP v. Kim, Case No. B289308 (2d Dist. Div. 1 May 29, 2019) (partially published), the appellate court decided that the denial order was not appealable.  It also declined to characterize the appeal as a petition for mandamus because substantial evidence showed that the client indeed waived his right to arbitration under MFAA by failing to request arbitration within the 30 days after receipt of the attorney MFAA notice pursuant to Business and Professions Code section 6201(a).