Berglund

Must a discovery dispute involving a nonparty to an arbitration proceeding be submitted first to the arbitrator? If so, what is the scope of judicial review of an arbitrator’s order compelling a nonparty to the arbitration to comply with a party’s discovery subpoena? We conclude, as the Court of Appeal did, that the dispute must be submitted first to the arbitral, not the judicial, forum, and that the nonparty is entitled to full judicial review of the arbitrator’s discovery order.

I

On August 23, 2000, Daniel L. Berglund filed a complaint in the San Diego Superior Court for battery, breach of fiduciary duty, and negligence based on medical care and treatment he received. Plaintiff alleged, among other things, that one of his treating physicians was impaired by his abuse of narcotics at the time he treated plaintiff. Named as defendants were a number of physicians and organizations that had provided plaintiff with medical care, including Arthroscopic & Laser Surgery Center of San Diego, L.P. (ALSC).

Berglund served on ALSC a subpoena requesting the production of certain documents, including medication logs pertaining to “missing medications, prescriptions and/or other…