Cannabis Arbitration Provisions: the Injunctive Relief Carve-Out

We’ve prepared a great deal about hashish arbitrations ahead of, and why these proceedings may well make far more sense for your scenario (see links at the bottom of this put up!). But when you will need quickly, injunctive aid, a prior settlement to arbitrate can perhaps be disastrous.

Arbitration is a great deal slower than other litigation to get begun — even while arbitration is usually regarded as hugely productive and having an in general shorter timeline. If you want to file a lawsuit in state or federal courtroom, you draft a grievance and file. In arbitration however, you have to put together a need, appoint an arbitrator or multiple arbitrators, and agree to rules. This can get numerous months.

The problem

From time to time this isn’t an concern, but at times it is. Numerous hashish litigation conditions can require requests for “injunctive relief” – this implies, a social gathering is not (only) asking for income damages, but also an purchase from the court docket that restrains a party from undertaking specific acts.

A traditional case in point is if a cannabis organization is suing one particular of its ex-workers for spreading its trade tricks to the general public. In that situation, you need to have speedy aid – some thing like a short term restraining get, or a preliminary injunction, or a long term injunction. A court has inherent authority to purchase that ex-worker to stop disseminating trade secret data. Not only that, but the court’s authority also is backed by governing administration authority to enforce that order or injunction (as properly as electric power to difficulty sanctions or cite events for contempt if they do not obey). Unfortunately, arbitrators don’t have the inherent authority.

The answer

So, if you intend to include a binding arbitration clause in your hashish small business contract, consider which include an exception or carve-out for injunctive reduction statements. The target will be to allow for the functions to request injunctive relief by way of the courts but solve all other statements through arbitration.

It’s crucial to have a experienced agreement lawyer draft this clause, mainly because the distinct language issues. The language requirements to make clear that arbitration is not the special solution in these cases. But, the language also wants to make clear that which include a ask for for injunctive relief does not hold the overall dispute out of arbitration.

For much more posts about hashish arbitration, remember to see: