Arbitration, Law, and Equity Our next case reminds me of a hoary legal story. Clarence Darrow handles a legal matter for William Randolph Hearst, and telegrams him: “Justice has prevailed.” Hearst’s reply: “Appeal immediately!” Appealing an arbitration result is often a long shot, because arbitration is more geared to equity and finality than […]
Main Problem is One-Sidedness of Arbitration Provision Compton v. Superior Court, Case No. BC448343 (2nd Dist. Div. 8 March 19, 2013) (published) starkly presents the conflicting views of judges confronted with deciding whether an employment arbitration provision is unconscionable. Leasa Compton appealed the order granting her former employer, American Management Services’s (AMS’s) petition […]
Arbitration Clause Did Create Unilateral Right To Compel Arbitration, And There Was No Precedent To Compel Mediation Members of an LLC ended up in a business dispute leading to a lawsuit followed by defendants’ motion to compel mediation and arbitration. The trial court construed an arbitration agreement as insufficient to allow one party to […]
The Inconsistent Rulings Could Have Resulted In Inconsistent Remedies – A Practical Consideration “The court, in a thorny litigation matter over technology licensing and investment fraud, denied a motion to compel arbitration of the issues arising under a cross-complaint. It held that there was an apparent risk of conflicting rulings between an arbitration […]
The Case Argued On February 27 Is American Express Company v. Italian Colors Restaurant On November 20, 2012, I posted about American Express Company v. Italian Colors Restaurant, the case now before the Supreme Court in which merchants have challenged American Express’s practice requiring them to accept its credit cards as a condition to […]
“A Dealmaker’s Distinctive Approach to Resolving Dollar Disputes and Other Commercial Conflicts” James C. Freund, former Skadden, Arps M&A transactional attorney turned mediator, is the author of the engagingly written and interesting new book Anatomy of a Mediation (Practising Law Institute 2012). Mr. Freund’s “anatomy” is a clinical tour, by a very wise guide, […]
L.A. Law: Top-Notch Law Firm Claimed Delayed Discovery Of Arbitration Agreement, But Court of Appeal Wasn’t Buying It Snippets of the trial court record selected by the Court of Appeal can be very telling. Here, the trial court, troubled by defendants’ claim of delayed discovery of an arbitration agreement, observed: “I guess one of […]
As A Result, Tenant Who Wants To Arbitrate Can’t California Code of Civ. Proc. section 1953(a) provides, “Any provision of a lease or rental agreement of a dwelling by which the lessee agrees to modify or waive any of the following rights shall be void as contrary to public policy: . . . […]
Requirement to Mediate, Found in One Document, Applies to Integrated Transaction With Several Documents The teaching of Darton v. Park Vasona Gas, Inc., Case No. H037499 (6th Dist. Feb. 14, 2013) (Premo, Acting. P.J., author 3:0) (unpublished) is straightforward: if mediating is a pre-condition to collect attorney fees, one should seek to mediate before […]
Decision Reversing Trial Court’s Findings of Unconscionability and Non-Arbitrability of Tort Claims is Very Fact Specific – But Ruling On Tort Claims Is Worth Noting Bigler v. The Harker School, Case No. H037450 (6th Dist. February 6, 2013) (Elia, J., author 3:0) (published) is a reminder judicial determinations of unconscionability and arbitrability are often […]