Inactive Licensed Attorneys Cannot Serve As Mediators Or Arbitrators And That Does Not Violate Equal Protection. Morris S. Getzels v. The State Bar of California, No. B338089 (2/4 pub. 6/27/25) (P. J. Zukin, Justice Mori, and Judge Daum (sitting by assignment), held that inactive licensees of the California State Bar cannot serve […]
Oh, The Pain. The appellant in Brian Alper et al. v. Pasquale Rotella, et al., G058088 (4/3 5/5/21) (Moore, Bedsworth, Aronson), sought to vacate an adverse arbitration award on the grounds that the arbitrator, who was in great pain and took Percocet to ease the pain during the arbitration proceeding, was so impaired that […]
Also, Arbitrator’s Religious Affiliation Is No Reason For Disqualification, With Jewish Affiliation Not Showing Any Inherent Bias Against Homosexuals. Bogue v. Anesthesia Service Medical Group, Inc., Case No. D073518 (4th Dist., Div. 1 July 17, 2019) (unpublished) (McConnell, P.J.; Benke, J.; and Irion, J.) is a case where a former employee lost an arbitration […]
This Is One Of Those Rare Cases In Which A Delegation Clause Is Not Enforced. Generally, a court will decide arbitrability of a dispute unless that issue is clearly and unmistakably delegated to an arbitrator, as was the case here. But there are exceptions, and New Prime Inc. v. Oliveira (S. Ct. 1/15/19) […]
Court Chastises Plaintiff's Counsel And Neutral Arbitrator. The Court of Appeal expresses displeasure with "unfortunate conduct" by plaintiff's counsel and the neutral arbitrator. The conduct included "omissions of key facts and misrepresentations . . . that would allow us to deem plaintiff's challenges as forfeited," and testimony by the "neutral arbitrator" in the superior […]
Court Shows No Sympathy For Circumstance Of Defendant/Appellant Whose Party Arbitrator Died. Here, the arbitration panel proceeded with arbitration after the death of defendant/appellant Mitchell’s party arbitrator, refusing to continue the hearing to permit Mitchell to select another party arbitrator. That sounds pretty harsh, but read on: “As troublesome as this circumstance may appear […]
Justice Werdegar Concurs and Dissents. The California Supreme Court held today, “that when hearing an administrative appeal from discipline imposed on a correctional officer, an arbitrator may rule upon a discovery motion for officer personnel records, commonly referred to as a Pitchess motion.” Riverside County Sheriff’s Department v. Stiglitz, S206350 (Dec. 1, 2014) (Cordigan […]
Judgment Confirming Arbitration Award Is Reversed, And Appeal From Sanction Order Is Dismissed. Wendy Kronick appealed from the trial court’s judgment confirming an arbitration award in favor of her former family law attorney, Debra A. Opri. Kronick v. Opri, B241510 (2/1 Sept. 30, 2014) (Ashmann-Gerst, Chavez, Ferns) (unpublished). Ms. Kronick argued that the […]
Profession Relationships Were Too Attenuated To Justify Disqualification Our next case is a lawsuit between a law firm and a lawyer/client over a significant amount of attorney’s fees – confirmation of the mission statement in our other blog, California Attorney’s Fees (brought to you by Mike Hensley and Marc Alexander), that attorney’s fees are […]
Missing You: Availability of Arbitrator Was a Material Factor or Consideration Relating to Petitioner’s Agreement to Submit to Arbitration Here, the petitioner agreed to arbitrate with a particular arbitrator who turned out to be unavailable. Nevertheless, the Superior Court of San Bernardino County compelled arbitration. The petitioner sought a writ to vacate the order […]