The arbitration process does not involve collections.  Once the decision is

made and handed down to the parties, DMA is no longer involved. That said, if the decision states that one of the parties to the arbitration must pay the other party a sum of money, that party will have a specific time to pay, generally 30 days. Most parties pay the required amount as set forth in the decision within the required timeframe.

Occasionally however, the party who owes the money does not pay within the required timeframe. In that case, the prevailing party may take the actual decision down to their courthouse and ask for the Judge to sign the decision thereby turning the arbitration decision into a legal judgement. The judgement assumes all the powers of a judgement just as if the dispute had been through a court trial.  The prevailing party then usually has all the choices for collection that any party to a typical lawsuit has such as wage garnishing, tapping the till, writ of attachment, and the like. The DMA arbitration process is set up specifically to allow the parties to be able to represent themselves without an attorney.  If a prevailing party does not pay pursuant to the award, consult your attorney to see what your options are.

Sometimes, a party to an arbitration may find that the other party (that owes

them money) is in disputes with several other parties as well. If they had a DMA expedited arbitration clause in their contract, they can file for OS Arbitration, have the hearing, and get their decision long before the other disputed parties can litigate their disputes, thereby putting the DMA customer at the head of the collections line against that dispute entangled party. Consult your attorney.