Florida Arbitration Act: Hearings, Awards, and Vacatur

The Florida Arbitration Act, codified as the Revised Arbitration Code in Chapter 682 of the Florida Statutes, makes written agreements to arbitrate binding and gives Florida circuit courts a defined role in compelling arbitration, protecting the process, and turning the arbitrator’s final decision into an enforceable judgment.¹ The revised code has applied to every arbitration agreement in Florida since July 1, 2016, no matter when the agreement was originally signed.²

What the Act Covers

If two parties put an arbitration clause in a written agreement, that clause is valid and enforceable unless there is a recognized legal reason to void the contract itself, such as fraud, duress, or unconscionability.¹ The statute does not limit arbitration to a particular kind of dispute. Commercial contracts, employment agreements, real estate transactions, construction disputes, healthcare contracts, and consumer service agreements all routinely include arbitration clauses that the Act enforces.

Some matters stay out of binding arbitration. Criminal cases, child custody and dependency proceedings, and constitutional claims generally remain in court. Family financial disputes can sometimes be arbitrated by agreement, but custody determinations and domestic-violence cases are handled through the court system.

Who Decides What

When someone challenges whether an arbitration agreement actually exists or whether a particular dispute falls within it, the court decides that threshold question. Once a valid agreement is established, the arbitrator takes over and decides whether any preconditions to arbitration have been satisfied.¹ That distinction determines whether your preliminary objections go to a judge or to the arbitrator.

When Federal Law Takes Over

If your contract involves interstate commerce, and most commercial contracts do, the Federal Arbitration Act may override parts of Florida law that conflict with it. The FAA declares that a written arbitration clause in any contract involving commerce is valid, irrevocable, and enforceable, and that it can only be invalidated on the same grounds that would void any contract.³ The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down state rules that single arbitration out for special treatment, so if a Florida rule treats arbitration agreements differently from other contracts, the FAA preempts it. For purely intrastate disputes with no commerce connection, the Florida Arbitration Code controls on its own terms.

Starting Arbitration

Arbitration begins when one party sends a written demand to the other. The demand should identify the dispute, describe the relief being sought, and point to the arbitration clause in the contract. The statute does not prescribe a specific format, but many arbitration agreements dictate how the demand must be delivered, whether by certified mail, email to a designated address, or through the rules of a provider such as the American Arbitration Association or JAMS.

If the Other Side Refuses

If the other party ignores the demand or refuses to arbitrate, you can ask a Florida circuit court to compel arbitration. The court looks at whether a valid arbitration agreement exists and whether the dispute falls within its scope. If the opposing party does not fight the motion, the court orders arbitration. If they oppose it, the court holds a hearing and orders arbitration unless it concludes there is no enforceable agreement.⁴

The court cannot refuse to compel arbitration just because it thinks the underlying claim is weak. The merits are the arbitrator’s problem.⁴ Once a court orders arbitration, it must stay any related court case involving the same claim until arbitration wraps up.

Picking the Arbitrator

Your arbitration agreement can set the number of arbitrators and the selection method. Many contracts designate a provider organization whose internal rules govern that process. When the contract is silent and the parties cannot agree, a court appoints the arbitrator. Arbitrators have an ongoing duty to disclose anything that could reasonably raise doubts about their impartiality, and challenges based on undisclosed conflicts or bias must be raised before the hearing begins or they can be waived.

The Hearing

Once arbitrators are in place, a hearing date is set. The statute does not impose a fixed timeline, so deadlines usually come from the arbitration agreement or the provider’s rules. The parties can agree on the location, and if they cannot, the arbitrator picks it.

Hearings resemble a streamlined trial. Both sides present evidence, examine witnesses, and make arguments. The rules of evidence are generally looser than in court, and pre-hearing discovery is far more limited. Arbitration providers typically restrict discovery to targeted document exchanges and witness identification, with broader discovery available only if the arbitrator decides the case requires it for fundamental fairness. Disputes that might take a year or more of pretrial discovery in court can reach a hearing in a fraction of the time.

Arbitrators can issue subpoenas to compel witnesses to attend and produce records.⁵ Hearings are private, with no public docket and no open courtroom, which is one reason businesses often prefer this route.

Emergency Relief

Sometimes a party needs urgent relief before an arbitrator is in place, such as an asset freeze, a temporary restraining order, or an injunction to prevent irreparable harm. The Act allows a court to grant provisional remedies to protect the arbitration process under the same standards that would apply in a civil lawsuit.⁶

Once an arbitrator is appointed and able to act, the arbitrator takes over that authority and can issue interim orders, including interim awards, to keep the process fair. After that point, a party can only return to court for provisional relief if the situation is urgent and the arbitrator cannot act quickly enough or cannot provide an adequate remedy. Asking a court for provisional relief does not waive your right to arbitrate; the statute is explicit on that.⁶

What an Arbitrator Can Award

Florida gives arbitrators broad authority over remedies. Beyond compensatory damages, an arbitrator can award punitive damages if punitive damages would be available in a court case involving the same claim and the hearing evidence justifies the award. When awarding punitive damages, the arbitrator must separately state the amount and spell out the factual and legal basis for it.⁷

Attorney fees and arbitration costs can be awarded if a Florida statute or the parties’ own agreement authorizes them for the type of claim at issue. For other relief, the arbitrator can order whatever remedy they consider just and appropriate. The statute goes further than many expect: even if a court could not or would not grant a particular remedy, that alone is not a reason to refuse to confirm the award or to vacate it.⁷

The Award and Confirmation

After the hearing closes, the arbitrator issues a written award. The award must be signed or authenticated by each arbitrator who agrees with it, and a copy must be delivered to every party.⁸ If the arbitration agreement sets a deadline for issuing the award, the arbitrator must meet it; if no deadline exists, the court can set one, and the court or the parties can extend it.

An award does not carry the legal force of a court judgment on its own. It needs to be confirmed by a court to become enforceable. To get confirmation, the prevailing party files a motion with a Florida circuit court and includes the arbitration agreement and a copy of the final award. The court must issue a confirmation order unless the award has been modified, corrected, or vacated under the applicable statutory provisions.⁹

Courts have very little discretion to refuse confirmation. If no one has filed a timely motion to vacate or modify, confirmation is essentially automatic. The court does not re-examine the merits or second-guess the arbitrator’s reasoning. Once confirmed, the court enters a judgment that can be recorded, docketed, and enforced like any other civil judgment.¹⁰

Grounds to Vacate an Award

Arbitration is designed to produce a final result, and courts are reluctant to overturn awards. The grounds for vacating are narrow and focus on process failures, not on whether the arbitrator got the law or facts right. A court must vacate an award if any of the following occurred:

The award was procured by corruption, fraud, or undue means.
A neutral arbitrator showed evident partiality, engaged in corruption, or acted in a way that prejudiced a party’s rights.
The arbitrator refused to postpone a hearing when good cause existed, refused to hear material evidence, or otherwise ran the hearing in a way that substantially prejudiced a party.
The arbitrator exceeded the powers granted by the arbitration agreement.
There was never a valid arbitration agreement, though this ground is waived if the party participated in the arbitration without raising the objection at the outset.
The arbitration was initiated without proper notice, substantially prejudicing a party’s ability to participate.

A motion to vacate must be filed within 90 days of receiving notice of the award. The one exception is corruption, fraud, or undue means, where the 90-day clock starts when the movant discovered or reasonably should have discovered the misconduct.¹¹

If a court vacates an award, the dispute usually returns to arbitration rather than moving into the court system. When the problem was corruption or bias, a new arbitrator handles the rehearing. For other grounds, the same arbitrator may get another chance. If a court denies a motion to vacate and no modification motion is pending, the court must confirm the award.¹¹

Modifying or Correcting an Award

Modification is narrower than vacatur. It addresses technical errors that do not go to the substance of the decision. A court can modify or correct an award if:

There is an obvious math error or a mistake in identifying a person, item, or property.
The arbitrator ruled on a matter the parties never submitted for arbitration, and the correction can be made without affecting the rest of the decision.
The award has a defect in form that does not change the substance of the ruling.

As with vacatur, the motion must be filed within 90 days of receiving notice of the award. If the court grants the modification, it confirms the corrected version.¹²

Collecting on a Confirmed Award

Once a court confirms an award and enters judgment, you have the same collection tools available as in any civil case.¹⁰ If the losing party does not pay voluntarily, you can record a lien against real property, garnish wages or bank accounts, or pursue other post-judgment remedies Florida law allows. Courts can authorize post-judgment discovery to locate hidden assets.

If the debtor has moved or has assets in another state, the Florida judgment can be domesticated elsewhere under the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act. Florida’s version lets a judgment creditor file the Florida judgment in another state’s courts without starting a new lawsuit, so long as the judgment is entitled to full faith and credit.¹³

Taxes on What You Receive

Arbitration awards are subject to the same federal tax rules as court judgments and settlements. The IRS treats all income as taxable unless a specific exclusion applies.¹⁴

The biggest exclusion covers damages for personal physical injuries or physical sickness. Under Internal Revenue Code Section 104(a)(2), compensatory damages, including lost wages, awarded because of a physical injury are generally not taxable. Punitive damages are almost always taxable income, even when they arise from a physical injury claim. The only narrow exception allows exclusion of punitive damages in wrongful death cases where state law limits damages to punitive awards only.¹⁴

Awards for non-physical claims, such as emotional distress, defamation, employment discrimination, or breach of contract, are taxable. Emotional distress damages can only be excluded if the distress stems directly from a physical injury. Otherwise, the only carve-out is reimbursement of actual medical expenses related to emotional distress that you have not previously deducted. Before spending a substantial arbitration award, talk to a tax professional, because the IRS expects its share in the year you receive it.¹⁴

1
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 682.02 – Arbitration Agreements Made Valid, Irrevocable, and Enforceable; Scope
2
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes Chapter 682 Section 013 – Applicability of Revised Code
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 9 USC 2 – Validity, Irrevocability, and Enforcement of Agreements to Arbitrate
4
Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 682.03 – Proceedings to Compel and to Stay Arbitration
5
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 682.08 – Witnesses, Subpoenas, Depositions
6
Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 682.031 – Provisional Remedies
7
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes Chapter 682 Section 11 – Remedies; Fees and Expenses of Arbitration Proceeding
8
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 682.09 – Award
9
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 682.12 – Confirmation of an Award
10
Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 682.15 – Judgment or Decree on Award
11
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 682.13 – Vacating an Award
12
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes Chapter 682 Section 14 – Modification or Correction of Award
13
Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 55.502 – Construction of Act
14
Internal Revenue Service. Tax Implications of Settlements and Judgments