Internet arbitration case lost. What are consequences of noncompliance with ruling?

I recently lost an internet arbitration case and after having having to cancel a contract with a computer programmer whom i had hired through a freelance hiring website, namely Elance.

I had a contract with the programmer that specifically stated that I would not need to pay for any incomplete work. I ended up requesting that the project be canceled because the programmer was very difficult to get a hold of and he had missed the first deadline date in our contract. However the arbitrator decided to disregard the terms of our contract and reward the case to the programmer and now I supposedly owe him payment.

My questions are:

1) Is the decision in an arbitration case binding?
2) If it is binding, if the programmer decides to sue or open a case and I am out of state, would he need to come to my state to sue me?
3) Given the circumstances described above, if he were to sue me, would I have a strong case to defend myself?

mgmt83 said:

I had a contract

Click to expand...

There's really no way to tell without reading the entire contract.

So you agreed to arbitration only if the decision was in your favor?

If your contract had an mandatory arbitration clause, you would need an attorney to have a chance to get it overturned in court. Even then, such clauses hold up even if the arbitrator does not follow the law.

What if you had won the arbitration but the programmer decided not to abide by it?