The Court of Appeals of Georgia clarified that arbitration clauses must be initialed by every signatory to an agreement. Vasudeva v. Dagnew, A21A0866, 2021 WL 3417474 (Ga. Ct. App. 2021). Specifically, initialing every page is not sufficient to comply with the Georgia Arbitration Code. Id.
Whether a valid and enforceable arbitration agreement exists is a question of law. O.C.G.A. § 9-9-2(c)(9). Further, the Georgia Arbitration Code is in derogation of the common law and must be strictly construed. Progressive Data Systems v. Jefferson Randolph Corp., 275 Ga. 420, 420, 568 S.E.2d 474 (2002). The Georgia Arbitration Code applies:
[T]o all disputes in which the parties thereto have agreed in writing to arbitrate and shall provide the exclusive means by which agreements to arbitrate disputes can be enforced, except the following, to which this part shall not apply...
Any contract relating to terms and conditions of employment unless the clause agreeing to arbitrate is initialed by all signatories at the time of the execution of the agreement.
Id. The purpose of the requirement is to ensure that signatories are not compelled to give up their common law right of access to the courts unless they specifically acknowledge the intent to do so by initialing the arbitration clause. Pinnacle Constr. Co. v. Osborne, 218 Ga. App. 366, 368 (3), 460 S.E.2d 880 (1995).
The Court found that Subsection (c)(9) expressly requires that the arbitration clause be initialed, not the bottom of the page with the arbitration clause. Therefore, Subsection (c)(9) is not met if every page of the agreement is initialed, and the arbitration clause is therefore unenforceable. This is true even where the only thing on the page is the arbitration clause. Therefore, you should either only initial the page with the arbitration clause, or if you initial every page, initial the page containing the arbitration clause with one initial being next to or near the clause itself.