Lots of interesting arbitration law has been made already in 2016, so here is a roundup from the first four weeks of the year. As a teaser, courts have breathed life into the effective vindication doctrine, found arbitrators cannot determine the availability of class actions, and found state laws not preempted. More surprisingly, state courts
In a victory for advocates who worry that the odds are impossibly stacked against consumers in some arbitral fora, the Seventh Circuit found that a class of borrowers did not have to proceed with arbitration conducted by the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe (“Tribe”) in South Dakota “because the arbitral mechanism specified in the agreement is
On Monday, the United States Supreme Court reminded the Oklahoma Supreme Court who is boss when it comes to the Federal Arbitration Act. In Nitro-Lift Technologies, LLC v. Howard, 2012 WL 5895686 (U.S. Nov. 26, 2012), SCOTUS declared “It is a matter of great importance [] that state supreme courts adhere to a correct
What is an arbitrator to do after concluding that the parties’ entire agreement — the same agreement that authorized the arbitration proceeding — is invalid? That is the question that the California Court of Appeal addressed this week. The California court ruled that the arbitrator was authorized to reach a decision on the merits of