1. (a) Immediately upon receipt of a notice of election of arbitration, the director of hearings shall forward that election to the State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH) with a request that arbitration be initiated. The case shall be file stamped and given an SOAH docket number which identifies it as a case submitted for arbitration. The docket number will be used on all subsequent correspondence and documents filed with SOAH relating to this arbitration.
2. (b) The party that did not initiate the arbitration must file an answering statement with SOAH within ten days after receipt of the notice of election from the electing party. That answering statement shall include an indication of whether the party agrees or disagrees with the statements in the initial notice of election. If no answering statement is filed, it will be treated as a denial of the claim. Failure to file an answering statement shall not operate to delay the arbitration.
3. (c) Concurrent with sending a request to SOAH that the arbitration process be initiated, the department shall cause a motion to stay to be filed in any pending administrative or judicial enforcement actions listed in §163.3(1) of this title (relating to Election of Arbitration) until the arbitration process is completed.

Source Note:The provisions of this §163.5 adopted to be effective January 1, 1996, 20 TexReg 10757.