In a recent opinion, the Fourth Circuit cited waiver as its basis to refuse to compel arbitration, but the result seems animated by a sense that the arbitration agreements were unenforceable. Degidio v. Crazy Horse Saloon & Restaurant, Inc., __ F.3d __, 2018 WL 456905 (4th Cir. Jan. 18, 2018).
The case involved a
In my last post, I shared some of the highlights from the first half of the new CFPB Arbitration Study. This post covers the second half of the report, with juicy information gleaned from CFPB’s analysis of almost 2,000 actual consumer arbitrations and its comparison of those results to actual consumer court actions.
Arbitration
In a decision this week, the Third Circuit found two related parties had waived their right to arbitrate claims. One was no suprise — it had vigorously litigated the dispute for eleven months. But the second may have been simply guilty by association, as it had only litigated for two months. Supermedia v. Affordable Electric
After reading more than 40 decisions about arbitration from state high courts, issued just in the past eight months, I have two bits of wisdom to share. First, that is not the best way to spend your summer vacation, even for a devoted arbitration nerd. And second, there are arbitration issues percolating in state courts
Let’s say you are considering updating your form contract, or you are in the midst of negotiating a new contract with someone. Should you include mandatory arbitration for resolving any disputes? Assuming you have the choice, my view is you should only include arbitration if at least one of these five factors are present:
1.
In answer to the proverbial question “how much litigation waives the right to arbitrate?,” the Third Circuit has responded that ten months does the trick, if the party seeking arbitration has engaged in significant motion practice, regardless of whether any discovery was exchanged. In re Pharmacy Benefit Managers Antitrust Litig., __ F.3d __, 2012
Despite the Supreme Court’s best efforts, some myths of arbitration law just will not die. In yesterday’s per curiam decision of the Supreme Court, the Justices tried to put a stake through the heart of a common myth: that a party may successfully avoid a motion to compel arbitration by arguing that not all claims