I have to confess something: I just returned from sunny California where I attended an excellent arbitrator training course put on by the American Arbitration Association and run by Dana Welch and Michael Powell! If you have an opportunity to take a course from either of them, I highly recommend it.
And, as it so
Pick up any textbook or treatise on arbitration law, and you’ll find the same thing in the chapter on enforcing arbitral awards: courts cannot conduct a merits review of awards. Courts, in other words, do not second guess the conclusions of the arbitrators about law or facts.
Or at least they’re not supposed to do
First, SCOTUSblog referenced “arbitration nation” last fall, which was flattering. Then last week the Ninth Circuit declared: “we have become an arbitration nation.” That was basically the title of my first post on this blog seven years ago! (“We are becoming an arbitration nation.”) I am going to turn up the Janet Jackson
In today’s post I recount an epic battle between the Rules of Professional Conduct (tagline: saving clients from unscrupulous lawyers for over 100 years!) and the Uniform Arbitration Act (tagline: saving arbitration from hostile judges for 60 years!) in the Supreme Court of California. Spoiler alert: the Rules of Professional Conduct win.
The story in
I have saved up six opinions that considered whether to vacate an arbitration award over the summer.* Only one of those opinions vacated the award; the other five confirmed. To get a flavor of what types of arguments are winning and losing motions to vacate, here is a summary of those six.
Vacated
The lone
Okay, folks, we are still combating the summer slide here. Today’s refresher rule is this: If an arbitrator fails to disclose a substantial relationship, the resulting award can be vacated under 9 U.S. C. 10 (a)(2). But, not all relationships are substantial, as the cases today make clear.
Beginning in my backyard, the appellant in
The Fourth Circuit issued an opinion yesterday in an under-developed area of arbitration law: when are awards “mutual, final, and definite”? This is an important issue because under Section 10(a)(4) of the Federal Arbitration Act, arbitration awards can be vacated if they don’t meet the standard of “mutual, final and, definite.”
In Norfolk Southern Railway
What could be a better subject for a Black Friday weekend post than the Cabbage Patch Kids??! Especially if you are old enough to remember the 1980s… Whether you loved or hated the smushed-face dolls, the point of this post is that the 11th Circuit confirmed an arbitration award in their favor, showing significant deference
In a decision that is very skinny on the facts, a unanimous Nevada Supreme Court recently un-vacated a significant arbitration award in a dispute over dental franchises. In Half Dental Franchise, LLC v. Houchin, 2017 WL 3326425 (Nev. Aug. 3, 2017), the court found the arbitrators did not exceed their power in exercising authority
So you’ve got an arbitration award, what next? In other types of civil cases, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (Rules) control service, and they have greatly reduced the role of U.S. Marshals in serving parties. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(c). But enter the Federal Arbitration Act § 9 and § 12 (FAA). When