Years Earlier, The Parties Had Agreed To The Appointment Of A Particular Arbitrator. Brothers Harry and Ted Soussos fought over control of family business interests. Harry moved to compel arbitration, and Ted timely objected. The arbitrator refused to recuse himself, and Harry obtained an award in his favor. The rub here is that several […]
Automobile Dealerships Are Subject To A Narrow Exception To Arbitration — But The Exception Did Not Apply Here. 1958 Subaru 360. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license. Author: Mytho88. Who knew? Automobile dealer franchises are subject to a narrow statutory exception to arbitration under the Motor Vehicle Franchise Arbitration […]
Arbitration Provision Allowing For Public Injunctive Relief Does Not Violate McGill Rule. The so-called McGill rule states California’s legal requirement that contracts allow public injunctive relief. So what happens if a contract requires arbitration of disputes, provides for all remedies in arbitration, and further provides that the claimant cannot act as a private attorney […]
An Addition To My February 4, 2021 Post About Videoconferencing: Tips For Using Zoom For Remote Mediations. In what could have been an Abbott and Costello routine, had those comedians been born into the Age of the Internet and Zoom, a Texas judge and a hapless attorney had to grapple with the vagaries of […]
McGill Is Still Good Law. The action in Joe Maldonado v. Fast Auto Loans, Inc., G058645 (4/3 2/8/21) (O'Leary, Aronson, Thompson) centered on whether McGill v. Citibank, N.A., 2 Cal.5th 945 (2017) is still good California law and whether it has been preempted by the Federal Arbitration Act. McGill, which we posted about on […]
Motion To Compel Arbitration Should Have Been Granted, And One Substantively Unconscionable Provision Was Severable. In Erendira Cisneros Alvarez v. Altamed Health Services Corp., B305155 (2/8 2/4/21) (Stratton, Bigelow, Grimes), the Court of Appeal reversed a trial court's order denying a motion to compel arbitration. The arbitration provision, which is part of an employer-employee […]
Tips For Using Zoom For Remote Mediation Since the beginning of the pandemic, I have been conducting remote mediations with Zoom. Based on my experience with Zoom, I have collected tips for mediators, attorneys, clients, and other persons who will be participating in remote mediations conducted via Zoom. While a number of other […]
Potential Beneficiaries Of Trust Received Notice, But Failed To Participate. After Don Kirchner died in 2018, the successor trustee of Kirchner's living trust found a document listing 24 charities with handwritten notes appearing to be percentages for distributing the estate. The probate court confirmed the successor trustee and ordered mediation among interested parties. Apparently […]
The Court Avoided Deciding Whether The McGill Rule Applied. The Cabatits entered into a solar power lease agreement, and sued Sunnova Energy Corporation, alleging roof damage. The Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court's order denying Sunnova's motion to compel arbitration, because the arbitration provision was unconscionable. Cabatit v. Sunnova Energy Corporation et al., […]
Complaint Filed November 11, 2016 And Motion To Compel Arbitration Filed November 20, 2018. Given two years elapsed between the time Plaintiff filed his putative class action wage and hour lawsuit, and the time Defendant filed its motion to compel arbitration, Defendant was going to have an uphill battle convincing the Court of Appeal […]