Last week, the United States Supreme Court reportedly refused to consider two wrongful death cases against nursing homes in Illinois and Kentucky where the plaintiff signed an arbitration agreement. After a number of appeals, the Illinois Supreme Court held that Carter’s lawsuit could proceed despite that she signed the agreement to arbitrate.

The Fifth District Court of Appeals in Dallas has affirmed a lower court’s decision to confirm an arbitral award in a construction dispute. In Goldman v. Buchanan, Beryl Goldman entered into a contract to design and build a new house with an architect, Russell Buchanan, and a builder, Lawrence Wallace. The parties’ agreement contained an arbitration provision.

In a recent paper entitled “Arbitration and Access to Justice: Economic Analysis”, University of Chicago Law School Professor Omri Ben-Shahar argues that mandatory arbitration clauses in contracts generally benefit most consumers. He also states that limiting access to arbitration in favor of a courtroom often provides an advantage to only the most elite consumers.

Since 2000, the World intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has provided arbitration services for alleged cybersquatting disputes. Last year, the number of domain name disputes arbitrated through WIPO jumped by an estimated five percent to reach nearly 3,000.