Protecting Indemnity Rights in Arbitration
By David A. Harris September 25, 2018 Articles
Through choice or compulsion, sureties often end up in arbitration proceedings involving a claimant and the principal. The principal and surety’s joint participation in the arbitration requires precautions to prevent the loss of indemnity rights.
Arbitration will invariably involve some document setting forth the scope and breadth of the proceedings. Often expressed in a consent order or arbitration agreement, default language used between two contractors might say that the parties agree to submit to arbitration “any and all claims or disputes they have against one another” related to the project or contract at issue.
Broad language defining the scope of the arbitration could later haunt the surety when it seeks to enforce its indemnity rights and recoup attorneys’ fees and costs involved in the arbitration or even recover losses and expenses incurred on other bonds.
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