As we pile up the cardboard boxes that held holiday gifts for the recycling truck and select our new year’s resolutions for 2012, here are a few reflections on the last twelve months in arbitration law. I would summarize it as another year where the U.S. Supreme Court was playing whack-a-mole, trying to tamp
"I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, And Dog-gone It" I Don't Like Mandatory Arbitration
Minnesota Senator Al Franken, among others, responded to the Supreme Court’s Concepcion decision by introducing a bill called the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2011 (S.987, also in the House as H.R. 1873) last May, which would legislatively nullify arbitration provisions in various types of agreements. The Senate Judiciary Committee heard two hours of testimony on
Another State Law Bites the Concepcion Dust
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