Welcome to 2020!
I hope that you all had a safe and rejuvenating holiday season. A new decade brings us plenty of new opportunities for thrilling arbitration news and developments!
But, up first, more on class arbitrability. I know. I know. So last decade. But trust me, this is a case you want to keep
Happy December! I hope that everyone has had a restful and well-earned holiday weekend break.
There’s a lot of new and exciting stuff happening in the world of arbitration, and I have some catching up to do. I want to start, though, in an unorthodox place.
We rarely write about early litigation actions on this
Today’s post covers three new developments from this past week. The Fifth Circuit found a defendant waived its right to arbitrate a class action; the Second Circuit found arbitrators retain power to clarify ambiguous awards; and Jay-Z found his list of potential arbitrators sorely lacking in diversity.
In Forby v. One Technologies, 2018 WL 6191349
Arbitration Nation is seven years old, and has 330 posts under its belt (and no seven year itch). Hip hip hooray! One of those posts is a perennial favorite, coming up over and over in search results: When Should You Choose JAMS, AAA or CPR Rules? Because that comparison is five years old, we
Class action arbitration continues to be a hot topic among the federal appellate courts this summer.
The 8th Circuit followed the lead of other circuit courts, finding that courts, not arbitrators, presumptively decide whether the parties’ arbitration agreement allows for class arbitration. Catamaran Corporation v. Towncrest Pharmacy, 2017 WL 3197622 (July 28,
Three state supreme courts tackled arbitration law in recent weeks: Alabama, North Carolina, and Rhode Island. Rhode Island reversed a construction arbitration award because it disagreed with the arbitrator’s analysis. North Carolina found that an arbitration agreement in a doctor-patient setting was unenforceable as a breach of the doctor’s fiduciary duty. And Alabama strictly enforced
A per curiam opinion from the 8th Circuit last week highlights that even if an arbitration goes off the rails, the only remedy is vacating (or confirming) the award. The parties cannot recover from the administrator of the arbitration.
In Owens v. American Arbitration Association, Inc., 2016 WL 6818858 (8th Cir. Nov. 18, 2016),
The American Arbitration Association (AAA) has not released statistics for years (other than to the CFPB). But recently, arbitration geeks got a summer solstice gift of (limited) new information. The piece is only three pages, short enough to read during a commercial break, but here are some key numbers to know:
Today’s post is a good one for all those defendants/ respondents who are convinced that they have a slam-dunk case and want to recover their attorneys’ fees. Because while these particular respondents were not successful, they paved a path that may lead others to collect attorneys’ fees after defeating claims in arbitration.
The case involved
Let’s say your arbitration agreement calls for arbitration administered by JAMS under JAMS rules, but the arbitrator is independent and applies AAA rules, over one party’s objection. A new decision from the Fifth Circuit says that is enough to vacate the resulting award.
In Poolre Insurance Corp. v. Organizational Strategies, Inc., __ F.3d__, 2015 WL