No arbitrator shall require the payment of a fee in advance of the arbitration of any controversy arising under an uninsured motorist provision of a motor vehicle or automobile liability insurance policy. The arbitrator may award the costs of arbitration to the prevailing party.

History: 1953 Comp., § 64-24-106, enacted by Laws 1969, ch. 18, § 3; recompiled as 1953 Comp., § 64-5-302, by Laws 1978, ch. 35, § 326.

Apportionment of arbitration costs. — The uninsured motorists' insurance statute and the New Mexico Arbitration Act are not in a state of repugnant conflict on the issue of apportionment of arbitration costs. The Arbitration Act merely encompasses the uninsured motorists' insurance statute; it allows the arbitrator to award costs of arbitration to the prevailing party (as does the uninsured motorists' insurance statute), unless the parties contract to award it in some other way. Stinbrink v. Farmers Ins. Co., 1990-NMSC-108, 111 N.M. 179, 803 P.2d 664.

Insurance policy may not require each party to bear own arbitration costs. — An insurance policy may not mandate that each party bear its own arbitration costs because the statute provides that an arbitrator may award costs of the arbitration to the prevailing party. Stinbrink v. Farmers Ins. Co., 1990-NMSC-108, 111 N.M. 179, 803 P.2d 664.

Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. — 7 Am. Jur. 2d Automobile Insurance §§ 336 to 338.

What issues are arbitrable under arbitration provision of uninsured motorist insurance, 29 A.L.R.3d 328.

61A C.J.S. Motor Vehicles § 563.19.