(1) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (3) of this section, upon the motion of a party to an agreement to arbitrate or to an arbitration proceeding, the court may order consolidation of separate arbitration proceedings as to all or some of the claims if all parties in the arbitration proceedings consent and:
There are separate agreements to arbitrate or separate arbitration proceedings between or among the same persons or one of the persons is a party to a separate agreement to arbitrate or a separate arbitration proceeding with a third person;
The claims subject to the agreements to arbitrate arise in substantial part from thesame transaction or series of related transactions;
The existence of a common issue of law or fact creates the possibility of conflictingdecisions in the separate arbitration proceedings; and
Prejudice resulting from a failure to consolidate is not outweighed by the risk ofundue delay or prejudice to the rights of or hardship to parties opposing consolidation.
The court may order consolidation of separate arbitration proceedings as to someclaims and allow other claims to be resolved in separate arbitration proceedings.
The court may not order consolidation of the claims of a party to an agreement toarbitrate if the agreement prohibits consolidation.
Source: L. 2004: Entire part R&RE, p. 1722, § 1, effective August 4.