2A:23E-6 Authority of center.

6. a. A center shall not be considered a department, agency, or public instrumentality of this State, and shall not be subject to the laws of this State applying to departments, agencies, or public instrumentalities of this State.

b. A center shall permit the participants to an arbitration to select any body of rules and procedures for the conduct, administration, and facilitation of that proceeding, whether those rules and procedures have been prepared by private arbitral organizations, created by the participants themselves, or by the center.

c. A center shall have the authority to establish rules and procedures for the conduct, administration, and facilitation of the resolution of all disputes subject to this act.

d. A center shall have the authority to adopt rules providing, without limitation and by way of illustration only, for the establishment of arbitral tribunals or other panels, which shall provide that arbitral tribunals or other panels may:

(1) determine the relevance and materiality of the evidence without the need to follow formal rules of evidence;

(2) be able to utilize any lawful methods that it deems appropriate to obtain evidence additional to that produced by the parties;

(3) issue subpoenas or other requests for the attendance of witnesses or for the production of books, records, documents, and other evidence;

(4) be empowered to administer oaths, order depositions to be taken or other discovery obtained or produced, without regard to the place where the witness or other evidence is located, and appoint one or more experts to report to it;

(5) fix any fees for the attendance of witnesses it deems appropriate; and

(6) make awards of interest, reasonable attorney's fees and costs of arbitration as agreed to in writing by the parties, or in the absence of an agreement, as it deems appropriate.

e. In assuring the exercise of the powers conferred by this act, the participants to an arbitration may apply for assistance from any court of competent jurisdiction. Any application to a court hereunder shall be made and heard in a summary way in the manner provided for the making and hearing of motions, except as otherwise herein expressly provided.

L.2017, c.1, s.6.