Title 7, Judiciary and Civil Procedure

(a) If, during arbitral proceedings, the parties settle the dispute, the arbitral tribunal shall terminate the proceedings and, if requested by the parties and not objected to by the arbitral tribunal, record the settlement in the form of an arbitral award on agreed terms. (b) An…

(a) The award shall be made in writing and shall be signed by the arbitrator or arbitrators. In arbitral proceedings with more than one arbitrator, the signatures of the majority of all members of the arbitral tribunal shall suffice, provided that the reason for any omitted signa…

(a) The arbitral proceedings are terminated by the final award or by an order of the arbitral tribunal in accordance with Paragraph (b) of this Section. (b) The arbitral tribunal shall issue an order for the termination of the arbitral proceedings when: COL412014 (1) the claimant…

(a) Within thirty days of receipt of the award, unless another period of time has been agreed upon by the parties: (1) a party, with notice to the other party, may request the arbitral tribunal to correct in the award any errors in computation, any clerical or typographical error…

Arbitral Award. (a) This Section only applies where the place of the arbitration is Guam and neither the Federal Arbitration Act nor the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards apply. (b) In any of the following cases the court may make a…

Motions; Judgment; Docketing; Force and Effect; Enforcement. (a) This Section only applies where the place of the arbitration is Guam and neither the Federal Arbitration Act nor the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards apply. (b) If th…

Vessel or Property. If the basis of jurisdiction be a cause of action otherwise justiciable in admiralty, then, notwithstanding anything herein to the contrary, the party claiming to be aggrieved may begin his proceeding hereunder by libel and seizure of the vessel or other prope…

(a) The Supreme Court of Guam is authorized to establish and promulgate rules and procedures for arbitration for such civil actions, except custody cases in which the authority is separately provided for, as the Supreme Court of Guam finds appropriate in order to encourage the pr…

Dispute Resolution Programs. Court-referred arbitration and other alternative dispute resolution programs should be accessible to all parties regardless of financial status and the Judicial Council may adopt and levy fees to implement provisions of this Chapter 42B.

(a) An arbitral award resulting from a Court-referred arbitration shall be final unless a request for a de novo trial is filed within thirty days after the date the arbitrator files the award with the court. (b) Any party may elect to have a de novo trial, by court or jury, as th…

Arbitration Award for Party Electing; Payment of Nonrefundable Costs and Fee. (a) If the judgment upon the trial de novo is not more favorable in either the amount of damages awarded or the type of relief granted for the party electing the trial de novo than the court-referred ar…

Book; Force and Effect. All arbitration awards resulting from court-referred arbitration shall be in writing, signed by the arbitrator and filed in the court in which the action is pending. Such an award shall conform with the requirements of Section 42A604 of this Chapter 42A. I…

Trial; Grounds for New Trial. Any reference to the court-referred arbitration proceedings or court- referred arbitration award during any subsequent trial shall constitute grounds for a new trial and/or amendment of judgment for the purposes of Guam Rule of Civil Procedure 59.

Entity as Party. This Article shall apply to any civil action otherwise within the scope of this Chapter 42B in which a party to the action is a public agency or public entity but shall not waiver the limits on liability of a public agency or public entity otherwise provided by l…

Payment. (a) All costs of court-referred arbitrations conducted pursuant to Section 42B101(a), including the compensation of arbitrators, shall be paid for in equal shares by the parties, unless the Superior Court of Guam determines that the imposition of these costs would create…

This Chapter may be cited as the “Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2022.”

I Liheslaturan Guåhan finds that on March 3, 2022, President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. enacted U.S. Public Law No. 117-90, the “Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021,” into law. Public Law No. 117-90 prohibits the enforcement of mandatory,…

For the purposes of this Chapter: (a) The term predispute arbitration agreement means any agreement to arbitrate a dispute that had not yet arisen at the time of the making of the agreement. (b) The term predispute joint-action waiver means an agreement, whether or not part of a …

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, at the election of the person alleging conduct constituting a sexual assault dispute or sexual harassment dispute, or the named representative of a class or in a collective action alleging such conduct, no predispute arbitration agreeme…

Determination of Applicability. An issue as to whether this Chapter applies with respect to a dispute shall be determined under federal law. The applicability of this Chapter to an agreement to arbitrate and the validity and enforceability of an agreement to which this Chapter ap…

This Chapter 43A shall be known as and may be cited as the Guam Mediation Chapter.

For purposes of this Chapter 43A, the following terms apply: (a) Mediation means a process in which a neutral person or persons facilitate communication between the disputants to assist them in reaching a mutually acceptable agreement. (b) Mediator means a neutral person who cond…

Mediate. An agreement in a writing to settle a controversy by mediation shall be valid, irrevocable, and enforceable, save upon such grounds as exist at law or in equity for the revocation of any contract.

The mediator or mediators may conduct the mediation proceedings in such a manner as they consider appropriate. Except as otherwise provided in this Chapter 43A, other provisions of this Code, the Guam Rules of Evidence (Title 6 of the Guam Code Annotated), or the Guam Rules of Co…

The parties may appear in person or be represented or assisted by any person of their choice. A person assisting or representing a party need not be a member of the legal profession or licensed to practice law in Guam.

Period. Unless otherwise agreed by the parties, the agreement to submit a dispute to mediation shall be deemed an agreement between or among those parties to stay all judicial or arbitral proceedings from the commencement of mediation until the termination of mediation proceeding…

All applicable limitation periods, including periods of prescription, shall be tolled or extended upon the commencement of mediation proceedings to mediate a dispute under this Chapter 43A and all limitation periods shall remain tolled and periods of prescription extended as to a…

Mediation. By submitting to mediation, no party shall be deemed to have waived any rights or remedies which that party would have had if mediation had not been initiated, other than those set forth in any mediation settlement agreement which results from the mediation or as other…

When persons agree to participate in mediation under this Chapter 43A: (a) Evidence of anything said or of any admission made in the course of the mediation is not admissible in evidence, and disclosure of any such evidence shall not be compelled, in any civil or criminal COL4120…

(a) Any writing produced by the mediator shall not be disclosed to the parties, the public, or anyone other than the mediator, unless all parties to the mediation expressly agree otherwise in writing, or disclosure of the writing is otherwise mandated by court rule, local rule or…

(a) Evidence otherwise admissible or subject to discovery outside of a mediation or a mediation consultation shall not be or become inadmissible or protected from disclosure solely by reason of its introduction or use in a mediation or a mediation consultation. (b) This Section d…

Anything said, any admission made, or any writing that is inadmissible, protected from disclosure, and confidential under this Chapter 43A before a mediation ends, shall remain inadmissible, protected from disclosure, and confidential to the same extent after the mediation ends. …

The mediation proceedings may be terminated as to all parties by any of the following: (a) A written declaration of the mediator or mediators, after consultation with the parties, to the effect that further efforts at mediation are no longer justified, on the date of the declarat…

The mediation proceedings may be terminated as to particular parties by either of the following: (a) A written declaration of a party to the other party and the mediator or mediators, if appointed, to the effect that the mediation proceedings shall be terminated as to that partic…

Subject to any contrary agreement between or among the parties, upon termination of the mediation proceedings, the mediator shall fix the costs of the mediation and give written notice thereof to the parties. As used in this Section, ‘costs’ includes only the following: (a) A rea…

Subject to any contrary agreement between or among the parties, the costs referred to in § 43401 shall be borne equally by the parties. All other expenses incurred by a party shall be borne by that party.

Mediation. (a) Any party to a mediation settlement agreement as described in §§ COL412014 43A301(c) and 43A302(b) above, may enforce that mediation settlement agreement at the Superior Court of Guam by filing a motion for summary judgment without filing a complaint, by serving th…

Exception. No person who has served as mediator may act as an arbitrator or as a representative or counsel of a party in any arbitral or judicial proceedings with respect to a dispute that is the subject of the mediation proceedings. No person who has served as a mediator may be …

If a person subpoenas or otherwise seeks to compel a mediator to testify or produce a writing as defined in § 43A102(d), and the court or other adjudicative body determines that the testimony or writing is inadmissible under this Chapter 43A, or protected from disclosure under th…

Neither the request for mediation, the consent to participate in the mediation proceedings, the participation in such proceedings, nor the entering into a mediation agreement or settlement shall be deemed as consent to the jurisdiction of any court in Guam in the event mediation …

Neither the mediator or mediators, the parties, nor their representatives shall be subject to service of process on any civil matter while they are present in Guam for the purpose of arranging for or participating in the mediation pursuant to this Chapter 43A.

(a) A mediator, and those acting pursuant to the order or rules of the mediator as his or her employees or agents, shall not be held liable for any COL412014 action performed or omission made in the course of their official duties undertaken pursuant to this Chapter 43A. (b) The …

In the event that any provision of this Chapter 43A conflicts with the provisions of any other Title, Chapter or Section of the Guam Code Annotated, the provisions of this Chapter 43A shall be controlling.

A person serving as a mediator shall comply with the Ethical and Training Standards for Neutrals adopted by the Supreme Court of Guam pursuant to Section 42A309. ---------- COL412014

(a) The Supreme Court of Guam is authorized to establish and promulgate rules and procedures for mediation for such civil, probate or domestic actions, except custody cases in which the authority is separately provided for, as the Supreme Court of Guam deems appropriate in order …

Court-referred mediation should be accessible to all parties regardless of financial status and the Judicial Council may adopt and levy fees to implement provisions of this Chapter 43B. ----------- COL412014