Opinion ID: 4531265
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The GDR Act & the ADR Act

Text: The first relevant statute is the Governmental Dispute Resolution Act (the GDR Act), see TEX. GOV’T CODE §§ 2009.001–.055, which expresses the state’s policy that “disputes before governmental bodies be resolved as fairly and expeditiously as possible and that each governmental body support this policy by developing and using alternative dispute resolution procedures in appropriate aspects of the governmental body’s operations and programs.” Id. § 2009.002. To support this policy, the GDR Act authorizes governmental entities to “develop and use” the “alternative dispute resolution procedures” described in the second relevant statute, the Alternative Dispute Resolution Procedures Act (the ADR Act). Id. §§ 2009.003(1), .051(a). Similar to the GDR Act, the ADR Act expresses the state’s policy to “encourage the peaceable resolution of disputes . . . and the early settlement of pending litigation through voluntary settlement procedures.” TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM. CODE § 154.002. To support this policy, the ADR Act authorizes courts to refer pending disputes for possible resolution through specified alternative-dispute-resolution procedures. Id. § 154.021(a). These procedures include “[n]onbinding arbitration” 2 and—if “the parties stipulate in advance”—arbitration that is “binding” and “enforceable in the same manner as any contract obligation.” Id. § 154.027 2 Nonbinding arbitration is “a forum in which each party and counsel for the party present the position of the party before an impartial third party, who renders a specific award” that “is not binding and serves only as a basis for the parties’ further settlement negotiations.” TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM. CODE § 154.027 (emphasis added). 3 (emphases added). Except for binding arbitration to which the parties stipulate in advance, none of the ADR Act’s authorized procedures result in a binding opinion or resolution. 3 Read together, the provisions of the GDR Act and the ADR Act would appear to authorize governmental entities to engage in binding arbitration, so long as the parties stipulate to that method in advance. But the GDR Act—which specifically addresses the use of alternative dispute resolution by governmental entities—expressly forecloses that conclusion. Anticipating the issue before us today, the Act authorizes governmental entities to engage only in the ADR Act’s nonbinding procedures: “Nothing in this chapter authorizes binding arbitration as a method of alternative dispute resolution.” TEX. GOV’T CODE § 2009.005(c) (emphasis added). In light of this provision, we cannot read the GDR Act or the ADR Act to authorize governmental entities to engage in binding arbitration. 4