The United States Supreme Court has declined to review a Supreme Court of Texas decision overturning a $26 million arbitration award. In Robert L. Myer, et al. v. Americo Life, Inc., et al., No. 14-774, a divided Texas Supreme Court overturned a unanimous arbitration award after the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) disqualified one party’s selected arbitrator due to partiality.

The Litigation Section of the State Bar of Texas recently published Don Philbin’s article entitled “Checkmate: Early Moves Define Negotiation Outcomes” in its newsletter.

Judith Resnik, Arthur Liman Professor of Law at Yale Law School, has published “Diffusing Disputes: The Public in the Private of Arbitration, the Private in Courts, and the Erasure of Rights,” 124 Yale Law Journal 2015. In her article, Professor Resnik provides a different perspective regarding the effect recent Supreme Court precedent pertaining to class waivers has had on arbitration in the United States.

In Part Twelve, we suggested harnessing the motivation that has led courts to refer cases to settlement conferences or to insist on private mediation in favor of an alternative – a plan regularly to refer cases sufficiently complex to benefit from active case management for oversight by a special master.