California Code of Regulations
Title 16 - Professional and Vocational Regulations
Division 33.1 - Arbitration Certification Program
Article 3 - Minimum Standards for Arbitration Programs
Section 3398.7 - Meetings to Decide Disputes

(a) Meetings of the arbitrator or panel of arbitrators held to hear and decide disputes shall be open to observers on reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms. The identify of the parties and products involved in disputes need not be disclosed at these meetings.

(b) The arbitration program shall give the consumer and the manufacturer at least five days advance notice of the date, time and location of any meeting at which their dispute will or may be decided.

(c) The arbitration program shall furnish to each arbitrator, at least five days before the meeting, a copy of all of the program's records pertaining to the dispute that are available to the program at that time. Upon the Arbitration Certification Program's request, the program also shall furnish a copy of those records to the Arbitration Certification Program.

(d) Upon request by the Arbitration Certification Program, the arbitration program shall notify the Arbitration Certification Program of the date, time and location of the meeting or meetings held to decide particular disputes or classes of disputes.

(e) Only the arbitration program's staff and the arbitrator may participate in a meeting held to hear and decide disputes, except that the parties to the dispute or their representatives may make oral presentations or correct errors when permitted under Section 3398.8.

(f) If a request is made under Section 3398.5(f), the meeting may be continued for a reasonable period not to exceed 30 days; the arbitration program, as part of its investigation of the facts (Section 3398.5(a)), shall take all steps reasonable and necessary to comply with the request, and shall gather and organize the resulting information for use by the arbitrator in deciding the dispute.