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Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Suit against LegalZoom must go to arbitration, Arkansas Supreme Court says

Suit against LegalZoom must go to arbitration, Arkansas Supreme Court says

The 5-2 decision reverses a trial court order that denied the company's motion to compel arbitration of a class action accusing LegalZoom of violating the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act by providing services that amount to the unauthorized practice of law.

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Appeals Court Throws Out Confidential Arbitration in Delaware

Appeals Court Throws Out Confidential Arbitration in Delaware

"The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld a lower court ruling that Delaware’s state-sponsored arbitration program violated the First Amendment."  Those words, "state-sponsored", are key.  This "arbitration" was not arbitration in the usual sense of a private-sector alternative to the public-sector courts.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Arbitration Clauses, Jury-Waiver Clauses and Other Contractual Waivers of Constitutional Rights

Arbitration Clauses, Jury-Waiver Clauses and Other Contractual Waivers of Constitutional Rights



Consenting to a contract containing an arbitration clause or a jury-waiver clause alienates or waives the Seventh Amendment jury-trial right in federal court. The standards of consent in arbitration law, however, tend to be lower than the standards of consent in the federal caselaw governing jury-waiver clauses. The Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) requires courts to apply contract law's standards of consent to arbitration agreements, while certain commentators argue that courts are instead constitutionally required to apply the higher standards of consent (knowing consent) found in the caselaw governing jury-waiver clauses. This article responds to these commentators and argues that the FAA's contract-law standards of consent are constitutional.

Saturday, October 12, 2013

The Effects of Gilmer: Empirical and Other Approaches to the Study of Employment Arbitration

The Effects of Gilmer: Empirical and Other Approaches to the Study of Employment Arbitration

An article by Christine Jolls, Accommodation Mandates, 53 Stanford Law Review 223 (2000), provides a framework for analyzing the effects of employment discrimination statutes. This article extends that framework to employment arbitration to describe the effects of enforcement of employees' pre-dispute arbitration agreements. The article also critically reviews empirical studies of these effects.