Patent Infringement: Successful Litigation Stays the "Course"
We previously wrote about an Illinois federal district court order requiring Samsung to pay about $4 million in arbitration fees in connection with 35,000 individual arbitration demands filed as part of a “mass arbitration”...more
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently reversed a district court’s decision to deny a motion to compel arbitration in a case involving a request to refund the cost of airline tickets after a cancellation....more
Online retailers routinely include arbitration clauses in the terms of service for their website, seeking to send any consumer claims to arbitration and to eliminate a consumer’s right to file a class action lawsuit....more
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a district court decision denying defendant MicroBilt Corp.’s motion to compel arbitration, finding the plaintiff had fully complied with all provisions of her arbitration...more
Nearly a decade ago, the New Jersey Supreme Court in Atalese v. U.S. Legal Services Group, L.P., held that for an arbitration agreement to be enforceable, it had to contain an explicit waiver of the parties’ right to seek...more
This past month, a California district court granted a motion to compel arbitration of various claims by customers of cryptocurrency exchange platform, Coinbase Global, Inc. (“Coinbase”), finding that Coinbase’s User...more
When a litigant seeks to compel arbitration pursuant to the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”), there are two issues that must be resolved: (1) whether there is an agreement to arbitrate; and, if so, (2) whether the dispute at...more
Employers in the First Circuit know that unconscionability challenges to employment arbitration agreements are commonplace. In Trainor v. Primary Residential Mortgage, Inc., the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode...more
A federal court recently refused to compel arbitration after it concluded that there had been no refusal to arbitrate. The court also refused to appoint arbitrators for the parties....more
In a case where both the plaintiffs and the defendant agreed the matter should be arbitrated, the Southern District of Ohio refused to compel arbitration and denied the plaintiffs’ motion for the appointment of arbitrators....more
The plaintiffs filed a class action against Domino’s, alleging that the company’s franchise agreement violated federal antitrust law as well as state law. Domino’s moved to compel arbitration, and the plaintiffs opposed on...more
Many employers strongly prefer arbitration to litigating with their employees in court. Employers often believe—and the Supreme Court has agreed—that arbitration of employment disputes has many benefits, including potential...more
It’s no secret that many employers have employees sign arbitration agreements with class and collective action waivers in the hopes of avoiding the massive wage-hour lawsuits that have become so prevalent in the past two...more
Under the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”), “a party may not be compelled . . . to submit to class arbitration unless there is a contractual basis for concluding that the party agreed to do so.” Stolt-Nielsen S.A. v....more
Many contracts have provisions that state that disputes relating to the agreement will be resolved in arbitration. But often questions arise as to whether a particular dispute should be decided in arbitration or in court. ...more
The defendants moved to compel arbitration of a complex dispute concerning the parties’ investment in medical marijuana companies. The plaintiff claimed that the defendants breached a non-compete agreement and fiduciary...more
The Southern District of New York declined to decide arbitrability questions after the arbitration agreement at issue incorporated the rules of the American Arbitration Association, which include a rule that arbitrators...more
As this blog has previously discussed, the availability of class arbitration has been significantly restricted after a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions. However, we have also noted that express preclusion of class...more
In July 2018, our Construction Alert addressed the question of who decides the arbitrability of a dispute when your contract includes an arbitration clause. Is it a court or the arbitrator? How did the “wholly groundless”...more
Can arbitrators determine what issues they have the power to decide? According to the U.S. Supreme Court, they can, provided there is “clear and unmistakable evidence” the parties intended to delegate threshold questions to...more
Opting for arbitration requires attorneys to balance efficiency and procedural protections. The implications of arbitration are something clients certainly have to carefully consider both when drafting arbitration provisions,...more
In a previous post, we addressed what may happen when a defendant in federal litigation seeks to compel arbitration under Ch. 1 of the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”), 9 U.S.C. § 4, but the applicable arbitration agreement...more
After granting a motion to compel arbitration, should a court operating under the FAA stay or dismiss the pending judicial proceeding? While the federal circuit courts are split on the question, the better rule seems to be...more
In Archer & White Sales v. Henry Schein, Inc., the Fifth Circuit clarified who determines whether a dispute is arbitrable—a court or an arbitrator—when a motion to compel arbitration is “wholly groundless.” In Archer, the...more
A federal court in New Jersey granted a franchisor's motion to compel arbitration of disputes involving seven frozen yogurt franchises, even though the claims were subject to different arbitration provisions in different...more