McConnell

INTRODUCTION

The California Arbitration Act (CAA; Code Civ. Proc., § 1280 et seq.)1 confers upon an arbitrator the power to issue “[a] subpoena requiring the attendance of witnesses, and a subpoena duces tecum for the production of books, records, documents and other evidence, at an arbitration proceeding[.]” (§ 1282.6, subd. (a), italics added.) Interpreting section 1282.6, subdivision (a), as a matter of first impression, the Court of Appeal in Aixtron, Inc. v. Veeco Instruments, Inc. (2020) 52 Cal.App.5th 360, 370 (Aixtron) concluded the subpoena provisions of the CAA did not give an arbitrator the power to issue “prehearing discovery subpoenas.” (Italics added.) In this case, an arbitrator issued subpoenas to compel two individuals, who are not parties to the arbitration, to appear and produce documents at a hearing specially set “for the limited purpose of receiving documents” from them, or to download the documents to a website controlled by counsel for the party requesting the subpoenas. The subpoenas provided that after the production of documents, the “hearing” would be adjourned to a later date, at which time the subpoenaed nonparties would be summoned to appear and…