Just as SCOTUS held its nose and confirmed an arbitration award it thought stunk in Sutter, the Supreme Court of Alabama has confirmed an arbitration award made after only the claimant presented evidence and grounded in a possible misunderstanding of Alabama law. Tucker v. Ernst & Young, __ So.3d__, 2014 WL 2619860 (Ala. June
In two decisions this week, courts consider whether arbitration awards can be vacated based on arbitrators’ decisions to exclude evidence. In both cases, the courts affirm an arbitrator’s authority to make reasonable evidentiary decisions — excluding hearsay and denying tardy subpoena requests — as long as those decisions do not deny a party a fair