Some arbitration agreements make arbitration mandatory by default, according to their wording; others simply give either side the right to choose arbitration.

Some arbitration agreements make arbitration mandatory by default, according to their wording; others simply give either side the right to choose arbitration. The de facto effect is the same except in the rare case where a court sees the wording of the first kind of contract and dismisses the case on its own initiative, since otherwise the arbitration clause would only be enforced on the motion of a party, without which the right would be waived. But it's not formalistically wrong to use the verb "force" to describe "exercising a contractual election" as opposed to merely "not waiving a default provision of the contract."