Relates to providing for vacation of an arbitration award on the ground that the arbitrator was affiliated with a party, or has a financial interest in a party or the outcome
Summary
Requires disclosure of possible conflicts of an arbitrator; provides for the vacating of an arbitration award on the ground that the arbitrator was affiliated in any way with any party, or has a financial interest directly or indirectly in any party or in the outcome of the arbitration.
Bill status
in committee
1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2025
Committee Review
Floor Vote
Governor
Introduced Jan 8, 2025
Last action May 12, 2026
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison
What changed between versions
S86
→
S86A
·
4 edits
MODERATE
This bill amends New York's arbitration laws to specifically include 'employment' and 'consumer' disputes within the scope of mandatory neutral arbitrators. It adds new definitions for these terms and clarifies that agreements requiring non-neutral arbitrators for these specific disputes are void. The changes aim to prevent bias in arbitration by ensuring neutral third parties are used for employment and consumer cases.
Scope change
The bill expands the scope of arbitration rules to explicitly cover employment and consumer disputes, which were not clearly defined in the previous version.
DEFINITION
Added new definitions for 'Employment' and 'Consumer' to clarify which disputes fall under the new neutrality requirements.
REQUIREMENT
Modified the requirement for neutral arbitrators to explicitly apply to employment and consumer disputes, declaring agreements that do not use neutral arbitrators for these cases as void.
ENFORCEMENT
Updated the disclosure rules for arbitrators to specifically apply to employment and consumer disputes, with stricter consequences for failing to disclose conflicts of interest.
ELIGIBILITY
Added an exemption stating that the new neutrality and disclosure rules do not apply to arbitrations conducted under collective bargaining agreements.
Floor votes
How they voted
No floor votes recorded yet.
Full legislative history
Actions timeline
Total actions
4
Key actions
2
Committee
2
Amendments
2
May 12, 2026
Upper · Passed
PRINT NUMBER 86A
upper
May 12, 2026
Upper · Passed
AMEND AND RECOMMIT TO JUDICIARY
upper
Jan 7, 2026
Committee
REFERRED TO JUDICIARY
upper
Jan 8, 2025
Committee
REFERRED TO JUDICIARY
upper
1 primary · 0 co-sponsors
Sponsors
Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
Luis Sepúlveda
DDemocratic
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