Liz Kramer

Subscribe to Liz Kramer's Posts

Liz Kramer current serves as Minnesota's Solicitor General.  Previously, she was a partner at Stinson Leonard Street and the founder of the award-winning blog, ArbitrationNation.

Follow:Liz's Linkedin ProfileLiz's Twitter Profile

Since the last post dealt with legislative overrides of arbitration agreements, this one will expand on that theme with a preview of an upcoming Supreme Court case.  In CompuCredit Corp. v. Greenwood, to be heard on October 11, the Supreme Court will decide whether Congress intended to prohibit arbitration of claims brought under a…

The Federal Trade Commission has long construed the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, a.k.a the “federal lemon law,” as barring binding arbitration provisions that consumers are asked to sign upon purchasing a product.  In fact, the FTC issued a rule that prohibits courts from enforcing binding arbitration clauses in written warranty agreements covered by the statute.  In…

Last week the Eleventh Circuit interpreted the scope of the arbitration agreement within a plaintiff’s employment contract to exclude civil claims stemming from her sexual assault by fellow employees.  In doing so, the court may have signaled a discomfort with sending civil claims based on criminal conduct to arbitration. 

In Doe v. Princess Cruise Lines…

By Liz Kramer and Patrick Burns (http://www.valuesolveadr.org/patrick.html ), Guest Blogger

If an arbitration agreement calls for the dispute to be administered by an ADR provider that will not or cannot accept the case, or calls for the application of non-existent rules, it may not be enforceable.  That issue seems to be increasingly prevalent in…

The Eleventh Circuit has ruled that the plaintiff’s act of amending its complaint may allow a defendant to resurrect its previously-waived right to arbitrate.  “[I]n limited circumstances, fairness dictates that a waiver of arbitration be nullified by the filing of an amended complaint.”  Krinsk v. Suntrust Banks, Inc., __ F.3d ___, 2011 WL 3902998,…

A recent decision from the Western District of Oklahoma reminds all litigators that you may be able to get preliminary injunctive relief from the courts, despite having a valid arbitration agreement.  Although this seems to fly in the face of the courts’ general arbitration refrain (stolen from M.C. Hammer: “[We] Can’t Touch This”), courts rationalize…

In April, the Supreme Court struck down a common law rule in California that declared most consumer arbitration agreements void if they prohibit classwide arbitration of claims, holding that it was preempted by the Federal Arbitration Act.  AT&T Mobility, LLC v. Concepcion, 131S. Ct. 1740 ( 2011).  In the last few weeks, two federal circuit…

A party with an arbitration agreement can waive its right to arbitrate by acting inconsistently with that right, usually by “invoking the litigation machinery” before demanding arbitration.  However, the federal circuits are split over whether a party asserting a waiver of arbitration must also show it was prejudiced by the other party’s use of that…

What is an arbitrator to do after concluding that the parties’ entire agreement — the same agreement that authorized the arbitration proceeding — is invalid?  That is the question that the California Court of Appeal addressed this week.  The California court ruled that the arbitrator was authorized to reach a decision on the merits of…