My Article, "Confidentiality in Arbitration" Is In The Latest Issue of California Litigation And Available Through This Post. My article on "Confidentiality in Arbitration" and an accompanying MCLE test are published in California Litigation, The Journal of the Litigation Section, State Bar of California, Vol. 30, No. 2 (2017), p. 6. With the permission of […]
Frontier Justice: An Alternative Form Of Dispute Resolution. I just finished reading Glenn Frankel's "HIGH NOON: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic" (Bloomsbury 2017), an enjoyable, very readable and scholarly book about the making of the iconic Western and the scoundrel times of the Hollywood Blacklist, with portraits of those […]
Unreasonable Delay Supported Trial Court's Finding Of Prejudice, Resulting In Waiver Of Right To Arbitrate. Sprunk, et al. v. Prisma LLC, B268755 (2/1 8/23/17) (Lui, Chaney, Johnson) holds that, under the circumstances, defendant Prisma LLC aka "Plan B", an employer of exotic dancers, waived its right to seek arbitration "by filing and then […]
California Law Requires Both Substantive And Procedural Unconscionability To Avoid Enforcement Of Arbitration Provision. The Court of Appeal's conclusion that it was "disturbed by the manner" in which an arbitration agreement was drafted and presented to an employee for signature, and that an "extraordinarily high degree of procedural unconscionability" existed, was not enough […]
Key Here To Finding Res Judicata (Claim Preclusion) Is Licensee's Derivative Liability. Gold Dredge. Klondike River. May 31, 1915. Library of Congress. A confirmed arbitration award (which, however, was not reduced to judgment 1) enabled George Reed, Inc. to assert res judicata against Cal Sierra Development, Inc. Cal Sierra Development, Inc., Plaintiff and […]
Subscript Law Has A Snappy Explainer. Today's SCOTUSBlog mentions that Subscript Law has a nice explainer boiling down three consolidated arbitration cases that the United States Supreme Court will be hearing at the beginning of its new term. The key issue in these cases: can employees sign away their rights to file class […]
Agreement Between The Parties That Award Could Be Reviewed For Legal Error Made The Difference. In Harshad & Nasir Corporation v. Global Sign Systems, Inc., and related appeals, B269427, B275942, B275947 (2/2 8/15/17) (Rothschild, Chaney, Lui), the Court of Appeal considered three related appeals of parties fighting over allegedly unpaid invoices amounting to $114,823.72, […]
ABA Section of Dispute Resolution — Task Force on Improving Mediation Quality Final Report. In 2008, the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution issued a Final Report on mediation quality. This report is available on-line. The Task Force narrowly focused on mediation quality in private practice civil cases where the parties are usually […]
My Mini-Comment Is Posted To NYT Website. Anita Hill, who famously testified during Justice Clarence Thomas's confirmation hearing, has written an Op-Ed for the NYT entitled, "Class Actions Could Fight Discrimination In Tech", appearing on-line today, August 8, 2017. She observes, uncontroversially: "Women in tech no doubt have hurdles to bringing class-action lawsuits, including […]
Employers Strive To Close The PAGA Representative Action Escape Hatch From FAA Preemption And Arbitration. Ever since the California Supreme Court held in Iskanian v. CLS Transportation Los Angeles, LLC, 59 Cal.4th 348 (2014) that Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 (PAGA) representative actions are not subject to arbitration, employers preferring arbitration have struggled […]