Editor's notes.

- In light of the similarity of the provisions, decisions under former Code Section 9-9-92 are included in the annotations for this Code section.

Vacation of award limited to statutory grounds.

- An arbitration award may be vacated only if one or more of the four statutory grounds set forth in O.C.G.A. § 9-9-13(b) is found to exist and, thus, an award could not be vacated based upon a determination that no evidence supported it; reversing Hundley v. Greene, 218 Ga. App. 193, 461 S.E.2d 250 (1995). Greene v. Hundley, 266 Ga. 592, 468 S.E.2d 350 (1996).

Issues resolved after application for confirmation.

- Whether the applicable statute of limitation or other jurisdictional prerequisites have been met are issues necessarily resolved by the trial court after the party seeking confirmation files its application for confirmation. Hardin Constr. Group, Inc. v. Fuller Enters., Inc., 265 Ga. 770, 462 S.E.2d 130 (1995).

Confirmation of arbitration award proper.

- Trial court did not err in confirming an arbitration award issued by the State Bar of Georgia arbitration committee because an attorney was not required to comply with the filing and service requirements imposed by Rule 6-501 of the Arbitration of Fee Disputes (AFD) program of the State Bar; because the attorney elected to file an application for confirmation of the award pursuant to Georgia Arbitration Code, O.C.G.A. § 9-9-12, the attorney complied with the filing and service requirements of the Code, and the filing, service, and notice requirements for summary proceedings under Rule 6-501 of the AFD rules did not apply. Prince v. Bailey Davis, LLC, 306 Ga. App. 59, 701 S.E.2d 492 (2010).

Judgment entered on arbitration award not in conformity therewith.

- As a trial court's confirmation of an arbitration award in favor of law clerks resulted in an award of back pay to the clerks that was to be implemented from the date of the confirmation order, it was not in conformity with the arbitration award, which required implementation from the date of the award. Fulton County v. Lord, 323 Ga. App. 384, 746 S.E.2d 188 (2013).

Renewal application to confirm arbitration award.

- Corporation's original state court application to confirm an arbitration award was incapable of being renewed pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 9-2-61(a) because O.C.G.A. § 9-9-4(a)(1) required any application to the court under the Georgia Arbitration Code to be made in the superior court of the county where venue lies, and thus, the state court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the corporation's original application; O.C.G.A. § 9-2-61(c) provided the only avenue by which the corporation could have resurrected the corporations' original void action under the renewal statute. Warehouseboy Trading, Inc. v. Gew Fitness, LLC, 316 Ga. App. 242, 729 S.E.2d 449 (2012).

Superior court erred in granting a motion to dismiss a corporation's renewal proceeding to confirm an arbitration award on the ground that the proceeding was barred by the one-year statute of limitation contained in O.C.G.A. § 9-9-12 because the application to confirm the award was a valid renewal action under O.C.G.A. § 9-2-61(c), thereby tolling the one-year statute of limitation; the corporation's original state court application to confirm the award was dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Warehouseboy Trading, Inc. v. Gew Fitness, LLC, 316 Ga. App. 242, 729 S.E.2d 449 (2012).

Construction with the arbitration of fee disputes program of the State Bar of Georgia.

- Rules of the Arbitration of Fee Disputes (AFD) program of the State Bar of Georgia authorize a party seeking enforcement of the arbitration award to elect between the filing and service procedures provided by the general arbitration laws of the state, i.e., the Georgia Arbitration Code, and the filing and service procedures for the more summary and expedited proceeding authorized by Rule 6-501 of the AFD program; accordingly, a party seeking to enforce the results of the arbitration over attorney fees may elect to file an application for confirmation of the award in the superior court pursuant to the Georgia Arbitration Code, O.C.G.A. § 9-9-12, and the party must file and serve the application in the same manner as a complaint in a civil action, O.C.G.A. § 9-9-4 and the 30-day deadline for objections set forth in Rule 6-501 of the Arbitration of Fee Disputes (AFD) program of the State Bar of Georgia is not applicable. Prince v. Bailey Davis, LLC, 306 Ga. App. 59, 701 S.E.2d 492 (2010).

Arbitration award to a client regarding a fee dispute.

- Arbitration award to a client regarding a fee dispute with the client's lawyer, since the lawyer did not agree to be bound by the award, could not be confirmed under O.C.G.A. § 9-9-12 because the award was not binding under the Rules of the State Bar of Georgia as the client initiated an arbitration proceeding before the State Bar of Georgia and the award was the product of the State Bar's nonbinding arbitration rules and procedures. Farley v. Bothwell, 306 Ga. App. 801, 703 S.E.2d 397 (2010).

Attorney's objections to an attorney fee arbitration award in favor of the attorney's client's mother's estate were filed too late; the client's application to confirm the award was filed timely under O.C.G.A. § 9-9-12, but the attorney's objection was filed well outside the three-month limitation in O.C.G.A. §§ 9-9-13(a) and9-9-14(a). McFarland v. Roberts, 335 Ga. App. 40, 778 S.E.2d 349 (2015), cert. denied, No. S16C0522, 2016 Ga. LEXIS 229 (Ga. 2016).

Approval of arbitration award not yet issued.

- Court cannot accept and incorporate into a divorce decree an incomplete and unenforceable arbitration award; such an award simply does not exist, in the same manner that an incomplete agreement does not exist; an arbitration award that has not been filed with the trial court cannot be incorporated into a final judgment and decree of divorce, and it is error for the court to state that such a nonexistent award is incorporated. Ciraldo v. Ciraldo, 280 Ga. 602, 631 S.E.2d 640 (2006).

Motion to vacate properly denied in child custody proceeding.

- In a child custody dispute, the trial court did not err by confirming the arbitration award and denying the father's motion to vacate because the arbitrator's decision automatically changing visitation did not violate public policy and that the award lacked evidentiary support was not a basis for vacating the arbitrator's decision. Brazzel v. Brazzel, 337 Ga. App. 758, 789 S.E.2d 626 (2016), cert. denied, No. S16C1889, 2017 Ga. LEXIS 146 (Ga. 2017).

Cited in Thacker Constr. Co. v. A Betterway Rent-A-Car, Inc., 186 Ga. App. 660, 368 S.E.2d 178 (1988) (decided under former § 9-9-92); Kuhl v. Shepard, 226 Ga. App. 439, 487 S.E.2d 68 (1997); Wachovia Bank v. Miller, 232 Ga. App. 606, 502 S.E.2d 538 (1998); Conmac Corp. v. Southern Diversified Dev., Inc., 245 Ga. App. 895, 539 S.E.2d 532 (2000); Bryan County v. Yates Paving & Grading Co., 281 Ga. 361, 638 S.E.2d 302 (2006);.