Demonstrating just how difficult it can be to separate questions about the “formation” of an arbitration agreement from the “validity” of that agreement, the Fifth Circuit found this month that when an argument was applied to two of the parties’ three agreements, it related to their formation, but when the same argument was applied to
Continuing last week’s theme of “States Gone Wild,” here are three more oddball summer decisions from state supreme courts. All of them find interesting paths around federal case law (IMHO).
Georgia Says Class Complaint Is Deemed Arbitration Opt Out For All Class Members
In Bickerstaff v. SunTrust Bank, 2016 WL 3693778 (Ga. July 8,
A short new opinion from the Ninth Circuit may run counter to long-standing Supreme Court precedent. In Casa Del Caffe Vergnano v. Italflavors, 2016 WL 1016779 (9th Cir. Mar. 15, 2016), the court refused to enforce an arbitration agreement in a contract that the parties admitted signing, because the parties simultaneously signed a second
The Third Circuit just issued a decision that tries to divine the dividing line between challenges to the formation of contracts containing arbitration clauses (which are presumptively for courts), and challenges to the validity of contracts containing arbitration clauses (which are presumptively for arbitrators, if the challenge is to the contract as a whole). It
On Monday, the United States Supreme Court reminded the Oklahoma Supreme Court who is boss when it comes to the Federal Arbitration Act. In Nitro-Lift Technologies, LLC v. Howard, 2012 WL 5895686 (U.S. Nov. 26, 2012), SCOTUS declared “It is a matter of great importance [] that state supreme courts adhere to a correct