This week, we’ll get to the nitty gritty of a topic that can be extremely relevant to litigators: the law applicable to determine the preclusive effect of an arbitral award.
If something’s been arbitrated, it generally cannot be relitigated. In other words, arbitral awards usually have preclusive effect. There’s not much controversy about this much.
Before I can sum up 2015 in arbitration (next post!), I need to report on some new cases coming out of the federal and state appellate courts in recent weeks. Two are just good reminders of basic arbitration law, but the third addresses an interesting question of double recovery.
Our first “reminder” case comes from
We all know that the doctrines of issue preclusion (collateral estoppel) and claim preclusion (res judicata) apply with equal force to both arbitration awards and court orders. But, if your adversary brings new claims that you believe have already been determined in arbitration, where do you go to shut down those new claims — court