You have been sued in Florida state court. Your agreement with the plaintiff contains an arbitration provision that may apply to the particular type of claim the plaintiff has brought against you. You want to ask the court to compel arbitration, but you are concerned that by doing so you may be waiving certain challenges to the lawsuit if the court declines to compel arbitration. On the other hand, by raising those challenges first, you worry about the risk of waiving your right to compel arbitration. What do you do?
This dilemma frequently arises because, under the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure, certain challenges to a lawsuit (e.g., the venue where the action is pending or the legal sufficiency of a complaint) must be made in the defendant’s first filing; otherwise, the arguments are considered waived.
