Thanks to Loyola Prof. Imre Szalai for bringing to our attention the interesting Ninth Circuit decision in Breazeale v. Victim Services, Inc., holding that disputes between a putative criminal defendant and a private company contracted by a prosecutor pursuant to a criminal diversion process are not subject to arbitration. Victim Services...
The current issue of New York Dispute Resolution Lawyer -- really a very good publication of the New York State Bar Association's Dispute Resolution Section -- includes a brief article by Roy Weinstein of the economic research and consulting firm Micronomics. The article summarizes certain findings of a study comparing...
As is his practice, Larson Frisby of the ABA Governmental Affairs Office has prepared his annual Federal Legislative Update, reporting on the status of federal ADR legislation and other related proposals and measures of interest to practitioners and public policy followers. Most prominent on the list is the CFPB's final rule...
A few months ago we posted disconcerting news of a dissatisfied party to a California arbitration who, rather than seeking to vacate the award pursuant to state or federal arbitration statutes, sued the arbitrator and the service provider, alleging that the arbitrator's qualifications had been misrepresented on the provider's website. The...
I write from Beijing, where the two-day Conference of the Asian Mediation Association has been held, organized by the China Council for Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) Mediation Centers. I was very excited to return to Beijing after nine years' absence and to meet so many like-minded, but differently-situated, colleagues. The...
In considering the debates raging about the enforceability of class action waiver provisions in arbitration clauses, I have always assumed that the arbitration clause was there just as a vessel to hold the class action provision. That is, I thought that there was no vehicle to waive class actions outright....
A recent decision of the Supreme Court of Nevada addresses the question whether a party's ignoring a provision in a commercial contract requiring mediation prior to commencing litigation may be grounds for dismissal of the action. In MB America, Inc. v. Alaska Pacific Leasing Company, the court said it was,...