Karl Bayer's Disputing Blog

New Arbitration Paper

By Rob Hargrove - May 28, 2008

Karl recently presented a new paper on discovery in arbitration proceedings at the State Bar’s Advanced Evidence and Discovery Course in Houston and San Antonio. Since we get lots of requests for these papers, we’ve now created a permanent page for all of them on our main website. Help yourself. Remember, though, that the law changes quickly, and parts of even the most recent papers are outdated and, in some cases, flat out wrong. By

Glen Wilkerson on Hall Street v. Mattel

By Glen Wilkerson - April 19, 2008

Karl and I just got the following email from sometime contributor

Bench Bar 007

By Rob Hargrove - April 20, 2007

Well, we have not posted much lately. There simply have not been any arbitration cases in the jurisdictions we routinely check (Texas, Fifth Circuit), and the actual law practice has been busy, so there has not been time to put something together in the “commentary” vein. However, that does not mean we have been ignoring arbitration issues. Later this morning, Karl will be presenting an update of his arbitration paper at the Austin Ba

Mandamus v. Interlocutory Appeal

By Rob Hargrove - March 31, 2007

Early this Saturday morning, Todd Smith at the outstanding Texas Appellate Law Blog posted about the strange quirk in the law whereby trial courts’ refusals to compel arbitration are immediately reviewable by mandamus if one statute applies (the Federal Arbitration Act or “FAA”) or by interlocutory appeal is another applies (the Texas Arbitration Act or “TAA”). Mr. Smith noted that the legislature could amend the int

Legislature Considering Limitations on Consumer Arbitration

By Rob Hargrove - March 20, 2007

We recently blogged with Rick Freeman about the important distinctions between consumer (“take it or leave it”) arbitration agreements and agreements to arbitrate between sophisticated commercial parties. We’ve just skimmed HB 3091 (link is to .pdf file), which if passed would severely restrict or outlaw the widespread use of arbitration agreements in consumer contracts in Texas. We will, of course, keep our eye on this. However

More on Appealability of Arbitral Awards

By Rob Hargrove - March 15, 2007

A couple weeks ago, we talked about the basic un-appealability of arbitral awards, and the idea that any potential alternative rule must be pursued at the front-end: parties can contract for some sort of appellate review of an arbitral award, but if it’s not in the arbitration clause there is nothing beyond what the FAA or the TAA (in Texas) allows, plus extremely limited non-statutory grounds for challenging confirmation of awards. Which i

Two Kinds of Arbitration

By Rob Hargrove - March 1, 2007

Frequent guest commenter Rick Freeman made an important point yesterday in a comment to our post on the Apache v. Texaco case. Rick said, commenting not only on the Apache case but also on our post about Sen. West’s proposal that information about arbitrations be compiled: Instead of a statute that says the decisions will be compiled, why not one that says that, in true arms length negotiated arbitration agreements, taxpayer financed Texas

Mandatory Disclosure of Arbitration Info in Texas?

By Rob Hargrove - February 28, 2007

The ICM’s blog just reported that Texas Senator Royce West has proposed legislation that would require the disclosure of certain basic information about arbitrations taking place in Texas. It would allow for some basic tracking of numbers of disputes sent to arbitration and awards being made in consumer and employment cases, other than residential construction cases (John Fleming was quoted in the blog piece noting that the powerful constru

Exemplary Damages and Attorneys’ Fees in Texas: Glen Wilkerson Commentary

By Glen Wilkerson - January 5, 2007

On December 22, 2006, the Supreme Court came down with the opinion quoted below. The opinion is significant in two important respects: 1. The opinion demonstrates the Supreme Court holding exemplary damages “constitutionally excessive” even though the exemplary damages are within the Chapter 41 limit of $200,000.00. Therefore, this is a case where the constitutionally excessive defensive pleadings came into play. The court holds that

What now, arbitration?

By Karl Bayer - May 12, 2006

Let’s all admit and accept the truth – within the next 10 years THE primary disputing system for most civil matters will be arbitration. Trial courts, juries and appellate courts will continue to dominate criminal and family matters and some personal injury cases. Who knows what will happen with cases involving Information Law. Whine about it, complain, tilt at windmills, but get over it – and quickly. Staying out of arbitration or challeng