Arbitration is meant to be an alternate to litigation. Yet arbitration is itself the subject of much litigation over who must arbitrate, what must be arbitrated, whether and how the arbitration should proceed, and the deference courts must show to arbitration awards. This blog is intended to be a resource for litigators, in-house counsel, arbitrators and anyone else who wants to stay on top of the many thorny issues that arise under the Federal Arbitration Act. Our Bloggers →
Arbitration Rules/Procedures, Litigation vs. Arbitration In a new case that reminds federal judges everywhere to sing "I've got the power!" like C&C Music Factory, the Fifth Circuit reiterates that federal courts can stay related state court actions if necessary to "protect or effectuate" an order compelling arbitration. American Family Life Assurance Co. of Columbus...
Arbitration Rules/Procedures, ArbitrationNation Roadmaps (primers) This post is dedicated to a perennial favorite topic: subpoenas for documents in arbitration. Why this topic and not something hot off the presses? Because SCOTUS has not yet accepted or denied the cert petition in Sutter, and no cases have come out recently that meet my high standards for discussion on this blog...
Arbitration Rules/Procedures, Validity of Arbitration Agreement I see more and more arbitration agreements that contain their own limitations period (the timeline for bringing a dispute in arbitration). Are all of those necessarily enforceable? No. In Order of United Commercial Travelers of America v. Wolfe, 331 U.S. 586 (1947), the Supreme Court held that contracts...
Arbitration Rules/Procedures In a dispute over how faithful a court must be to the parties' arbitration agreement when it is asked to resolve an impasse in arbitrator selection under Section 5 of the FAA, the Fifth Circuit decided the court must give effect to the letter of the agreement, even if that defies its spirit. In BP Exploration...
Arbitration Rules/Procedures, Scope of Arbitration Agreement, Validity of Arbitration Agreement It must be near the end of the clerk year, because courts are going gangbusters issuing opinions. Today, a roundup of three arbitration decisions from Southern states. Notably, Louisiana makes it tough for lawyers to enforce arbitration agreements with their clients. After prominently noting that the lower...
Arbitration Rules/Procedures, Class Arbitration, Scope of Arbitration Agreement With less colorful language than its last arbitration opinion, the First Circuit sided with the Second and Third Circuits in limiting the application of the 2010 Stolt-Nielsen decision on the availability of class arbitration. Fantastic Sams Franchise Corp. v. FSRO Assoc. Ltd., __ F.3d __, 2012 WL 2402560 (1st Cir....
Arbitration Rules/Procedures, Validity of Arbitration Agreement To date, courts have largely limited the impact of the Rent-A-Center decision to arbitration agreements with explicit delegation clauses. But, what if Rent-A-Center applied to every single arbitration agreement that mentioned the AAA rules? That is a very real possibility, and one which would send almost all...
Appealing Arbitration Decisions, Arbitration Rules/Procedures, Class Arbitration, Scope of Arbitration Agreement The Fifth Circuit just issued a decision openly disagreeing with how the Second Circuit has interpreted both the Stolt-Nielsen decision and case law regarding the level of deference that courts owe arbitrators. In Reed v. Florida Metropolitan Univ., Inc., __ F.3d __, 2012 WL 1759298 (5th Cir. May 18, 2012), the...
Arbitration Rules/Procedures, Class Arbitration, Validity of Arbitration Agreement A few months ago I posted about actions that FINRA and the NLRB were taking in support of allowing class arbitration, and those agencies have recently taken additional actions that help consumers or employees with relatively low dollar claims. The NLRB brought a complaint against 24 Hour Fitness USA, Inc. The...
Arbitration Rules/Procedures Maryland's highest court recently affirmed the dismissal of an employer's non-compete claims as time-barred, even though the employer argued that the parties' arbitration excused the untimely filing. Kumar v. Dhanda, __ A.3d ___, 2012 WL 1521567 (Md. May 2, 2012). The employee, a urologist, had signed a...
