Texas has very narrow grounds to vacate an Arbitration award in a divorce. According to the Texas courts, because the courts favor arbitration awards as a means of disposing of disputes, the courts indulge every reasonable presumption in favor of upholding the awards. See Nuno v. Pulido, 946 S.W.2d 448, 452 (Tex. App.--Corpus Christi 1997, no writ). The courts hold a mere mistake of fact or law alone is insufficient to set aside an arbitration award. See id. An arbitration award is to be given the same weight as a trial court's judgment, and the reviewing court may not substitute its judgment for the arbitrator's merely because it would have reached a different result. See Riha v. Smulcer, 843 S.W.2d 289, 293-94 (Tex. App.--Houston [14th Dist.] 1992, writ denied). To review an arbitration case, the court reviews the entire record. See id. at 294.

Texas code states on application, the court shall modify or correct an award if there was: (1) a miscalculation of figures; (2) a mistake in the description of a person, thing, or property referred to in the award; (3) the arbitrators made an award on an issue not submitted to them and the award may be corrected without affecting the merits of the issues submitted; or (4) the award is imperfect in form only. See Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Ann. § 171.091(a).

Furthermore, the court shall vacate an award if: (1) the award was obtained by corruption, Fraud, or other undue means; (2) the rights of a party were prejudiced by evident partiality by an arbitrator, corruption in an arbitrator, or misconduct or willful misbehavior of an arbitrator; (3) the arbitrators exceeded their powers, refused to postpone the hearing after a showing of sufficient cause for the postponement, refused to hear evidence material to the controversy, or conducted the hearing in a manner that substantially prejudiced the rights of a party; or (4) there was no agreement to arbitrate, the issue was not adversely determined, and the party did not participate in the arbitration hearing without raising an objection. See Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Ann. § 171.088.

Thus, as you can see, it is very rare to get an award vacated because the courts have their hands tied by the above laws.

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