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Liz Kramer

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The Supreme Court issued another arbitration decision today in New Prime v. Oliveira.  And like last week’s decision in Henry Schein, it was unanimous (but Kavanaugh did not participate).  Today’s New Prime decision has two key holdings:  First, it is for courts, and not arbitrators (regardless of any delegation clause) to determine whether the Federal Arbitration Act applies.  Second, the Federal Arbitration Act does not apply to interstate transportation workers.  Those are pretty…
Posted in ADR
I called it.  SCOTUS issued its unanimous opinion today in Henry Schein v. Archer & White, vacating and remanding the Fifth Circuit decision and making clear that there is no “wholly groundless” exception to the Federal Arbitration Act’s enforcement of delegation clauses. As you may recall, a circuit split had developed over the “wholly groundless” exception.  Some circuits, including the Fifth, concluded that even when parties have delegated questions of arbitrability (questions like: is the…
Posted in ADR
Courtesy of the Ninth Circuit, we kick off 2019 with some fundamentals.  The Federal Arbitration Act gives parties three months to petition to vacate an arbitration award.  We know that “Three is the Magic Number,” but how exactly is a disappointed party supposed to calculate the three months? Section 12 of the FAA requires that a petition to vacate be served upon the adverse party “within three months after the award is filed…
Posted in ADR
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As we close out 2018, it is a good time to reflect on the year in arbitration law.  Overall, I would characterize the year as another in which everyone was mildly obsessed with class actions, the U.S. Supreme Court again showed its willingness to enforce arbitration agreements of all kinds, and lower courts and groups of citizens attempted to resist the high court’s blind faith in arbitration with some success.  Here are my thoughts on…
One of the most confounding doctrines in federal arbitration jurisprudence is the severability doctrine.  The U.S. Supreme Court has held, since Prima Paint in 1967, that courts must enforce arbitration clauses within contracts, even if the entire contract is invalid or unenforceable.  (Most non-arbitration geeks don’t believe me when I tell them that’s the law.)  The only time a court can address the argument for invalidity is if the litigant directs it specifically at the…
Posted in ADR
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The ABA Journal released its Web 100 awards recently, and I am happy to announce that ArbitrationNation is still in the Blawg Hall of Fame!  ArbitrationNation was inducted into the Hall of Fame last year, after multiple years on the Top 100 list, for being “consistently outstanding,” which is embarrassingly high praise.    There are now 60 blogs in the Blawg Hall of Fame, but Arbitration Nation remains the only blog on the list…
Posted in ADR
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Today’s post covers three new developments from this past week. The Fifth Circuit found a defendant waived its right to arbitrate a class action; the Second Circuit found arbitrators retain power to clarify ambiguous awards; and Jay-Z found his list of potential arbitrators sorely lacking in diversity. In Forby v. One Technologies, 2018 WL 6191349 (5th Cir. Nov. 28, 2018), a class of plaintiffs filed an action for consumer fraud. The defendant waited two years before compelling…
Posted in ADR
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You know what rarely rises to the top of my “to do” list?  Reading scholarly articles and studies about arbitration.  Blech.  But, since I haven’t seen any good court decisions lately, it is time to visit the neglected pile of articles.  Turns out, I should have read some of them right away.  Below are summaries of five new-ish articles that have crossed my desk.  A few offer peeks into arbitration data that is generally not available…
Posted in ADR
In an opinion that coins new terms and uses the insouciant tone of a blogger, the 11th Circuit just shut down a putative class action brought by homeowners against a vendor of roof shingles.  The Court found that the terms and conditions printed on the exterior of the shingle packaging formed an enforceable contract (with a class arbitration waiver), and when the roofing contractors opened the shingles, the roofers bound the homeowners who had hired them.  Dye v. Tamko…
Posted in ADR
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There are only four ways to avoid an arbitration agreement.  You can prove: 1)  it was never formed; 2) it was formed, but is invalid under state law; 3) the current dispute is outside the scope of it; or 4) the other party waived their right to arbitrate (through litigation conduct).  Today’s post is about the third method.  Because of the federal presumption in favor of arbitrability, which applies when courts are determining whether the…
Posted in ADR