In 2004, the Supreme Court of Texas first addressed the issue of whether an arbitrator or a judge decides if an arbitration agreement permits (or prohibits) class arbitration....more
The U.S. Supreme Court has issued numerous decisions over the past decade addressing arbitration agreements. In one of the Roberts Court’s first forays into the arbitration arena, the Court held that class or collective...more
Less than a week apart, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Tenth and Eleventh Circuits issued similar rulings regarding class arbitration. Both courts examined the question of whether the incorporation of American Arbitration...more
The U.S. Supreme Court has again emphasized that parties to arbitration agreements have great latitude in structuring their agreements, including the ability to require bilateral — as opposed to class — arbitration. ...more
6/4/2018
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Epic Systems Corp v Lewis ,
Ernst & Young v Morris ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Murphy Oil v NLRB ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Remand ,
Reversal ,
Savings Clause ,
SCOTUS
In Stolt-Nielsen S.A. v. AnimalFeeds International Corp., the U.S. Supreme Court held that “a party may not be compelled” under the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) “to submit to class arbitration unless there is a contractual...more
In what appears to be a first-of-its-kind ruling, the District Court for the Southern District of New York recently concluded that a federal district court has the authority to vacate an arbitrator’s class certification award...more
Employers that have class- or collective-action waivers in their employee arbitration agreements (or are contemplating implementing them) need not wait much longer for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether such waivers are...more
The United States Supreme Court recently granted certiorari in a trio of cases—Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, No. 16-285; Ernst & Young LLP v. Morris, No. 16-300; and NLRB v. Murphy Oil USA Inc., No. 16-307—to decide on a...more
1/30/2017
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Certiorari ,
Class Action ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Collective Actions ,
Ernst & Young ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
Murphy Oil USA ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
SCOTUS
Is the availability of class-wide arbitration a “gateway” question for courts, or are arbitrators charged with such a decision once a matter is compelled to them? In Dell Webb Communities, Inc. v. Carlson, the Fourth Circuit...more
The United States Supreme Court recently declined to review a Third Circuit decision holding that ordinarily a court, not an arbitrator, determines the availability of classwide arbitration. Opalinski v. Robert Half...more
There are significant differences between individual (or “bilateral”) arbitration and classwide arbitration that can substantially affect the nature of arbitration as a dispute resolution mechanism. Individual arbitration can...more
Recent Supreme Court decisions have favored the enforcement of consumer arbitration agreements requiring individual, rather than classwide, dispute resolution. A number of courts, however, have found that arbitrators, whose...more
The United States Supreme Court recently announced that it will return to the trenches of arbitration jurisprudence. Specifically, the Court granted certiorari in Oxford Health Plans LLC v. Sutter, No. 12-135 (U.S.), to...more