By Jill I. Gross An arbitrator’s ruling that an arbitration agreement permits class arbitration does not exceed his powers or manifestly disregard the law, because the law on that issue is in flux and the resolution of that issue is tethered to the idiosyncratic terms of the arbitration agreement. A Clause Construed to Allow Class […]
By George H. Friedman* SAC Contributing Legal Editor and Board of Editors Member Chairman of the Board – Arbitration Resolution Services [This is adapted from a post originally published in the author’s blog at Arbitration Resolution Services (ARS). Reposted with permission of and thanks to ARS!] Toward the end of last year, I authored a […]
FINRA has issued a Regulatory Notice seeking comments on proposed Discovery Guide changes requiring production of insurance information. We reported in SAA 2018-19 (May 16) that FINRA’s Board of Governors approved at its May 9-10 meeting a proposal to amend the arbitration Discovery Guide. In keeping with the “new normal,” before filing the rule change […]
At the end of 2018’s first quarter, we would not have thought the surprising caseload surge sustainable, but, having reached the end of the second quarter, it seems warranted to annualize the statistics posted by FINRA-DR on its operations and case work. Whereas the average monthly case inflow in 2017 was less than 300, the […]
Last week, we analyzed the cases involving business and securities arbitration decided by Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh of the District of Columbia Circuit. This week, we look beyond those areas. We concluded last week that, based on that very limited sampling, Judge Kavanaugh, who was on the President’s published List of potential […]
President Trump on July 9th nominated Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh of the District of Columbia Circuit to fill the open Supreme Court seat created by the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy. So far, we’ve found several cases – one involving securities arbitration – and based on this very limited sampling, Judge Kavanaugh, who was on […]
By George H. Friedman* SAC Board Member and Contributing Legal Editor [This guest blog post is derived from a feature article by the same name appearing in 2018:3 Securities Arbitration Commentator] In a 5-4 decision split along ideological lines, the Supreme Court on May 21 held in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, No. 16-285, that the […]
By George H. Friedman* SAC Board Member and Contributing Legal Editor Having already agreed to review two arbitration-centric cases next Term, the Supreme Court on June 25 granted Certiorari in a third case, setting up the first arbitration “trilogy”[1] in over fifty years. This blog post examines the three cases the Court has agreed to […]
At the end of the first quarter of 2018, FINRA Dispute Resolution was reporting a 37% climb in new filings of customer cases (689 v. 502) and a 58% increase in intra-industry cases (463 v. 293), compared to the same period of 2017. We commented in our review of the March statistical report from FINRA-DR, […]
In a narrow 5-4 decision split along ideological lines, the Supreme Court on May 21 held in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, No. 16-285, that the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) permits employers to use arbitration clauses containing class action waivers, notwithstanding the National Labor Relations Act’s (“NLRA”) protections of workers’ rights to act collectively. He may not […]
