Attending the 2009 ABA Annual Meeting? you might find the following event of interest: Please join us for the 2009 ABA Annual Meeting at the Fairmont Hotel in Chicago where the Section of Litigation’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee will present: Arbitration: Has It Fulfilled Its Promises? Friday, July 31, 2009, 2:00 – 3:30 pm Moderator: Edward Mullins, Astigarra Davis Mullins & Grossman, P.A., Miami, Florida Panelists will include: • Lawrence Schaner, Jenner & Block, Chicago, Ill. • Preston Pugh, Pugh, Jones, Johnson & Quandt, P.C., Chicago, Ill. • Deepak Gupta, Public Citizen, Wash. D.C. The panel will explore recent efforts to curtail arbitration in Congress and the courts and then includes a frank, candid discussion of whether arbitration is meeting its promises for litigants. Panelists include an experienced international arbitration practitioner, former in house counsel for GE, and a well-known consumer rights advocate. Find out more about the ABA 2009 Annual Meeting here. The 2009 ABA Program Book is here and the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution Program is here.

To follow up on our post of earlier this week, regarding the Congressional hearing on consumer debt arbitration held in Washington D.C. on July 22, we thought we would like to read the Opening Statement by Dennis Kucinich, Chairman, Domestic Policy Subcommittee and the Staff Report. Also, following find links to prepared testimony by the expert witnesses: Testimony of Michael F. Kelly, Chief Operating Officer, National Arbitration Forum Testimony of Richard W. Naimark, Senior Vice-President, International Centre for Dispute Resolution, a division of the American Arbitration Association Testimony of F. Paul Bland, Staff Attorney, Public Justice Testimony of Christopher R. Drahozal, John M. Rounds Professor of Law, University of Kansas Testimony of the Honorable Lori Swanson, Attorney General, State of Minnesota. Stay tuned to Disputing for updates on this topic! Technorati Tags: arbitration, ADR, law, consumer arbitration

Our reader Pat Winslow sent us a rather unusual case filed last year in Tarrant County, Texas. In Scott W. Mooring v. Strasburger (No. 231985) (Aug. 18, 2008) Scott W. Moorig sued Charles M. Hosch and his employer, the law firm Strasburger & Price, LLP, for breach of contract and fraud. Mooring claims that he hired Hosch to conduct an arbitration between himself and two former business associates. The complaint alleges that Hosch took the money and never rendered a final arbitration award. The most bizarre part of the allegations is found on page 3: At one point during the underlying arbitration proceeding, Defendant Hosch suggested that Plaintiff’s opponent should commission a symphony in honor of Plaintiff’s spouse as opposed to going further with the arbitration. Plaintiff had paid Defendants to conduct an arbitration and found the symphony suggestion strange, unprofessional, and demonstrated a lack of understanding the gravity of the arbitration. Apparently, the suggestion was not received with gusto by Mooring and he is now seeking actual damages for a half-million dollars, plus punitive damages and attorneys’ fees. Technorati tags: arbitration, ADR, law, Strasburger & Price, LLP

The Wall Street Journal reported that on Tuesday, a representative of the American Bar Association (“AAA”) said the organization will stop participating in consumer-debt-collection disputes until “new guidelines are established.” Read the full story here: An Arbitration Revolution? AAA Joins NAF, Stops Taking New Cases. Hat tip to our good friend and blog contributor Glen M. Wilkerson. Update: The AAA just released the following statement (.pdf): The American Arbitration Association® Calls For Reform of Debt Collection Arbitration Largest Arbitration Services Provider Will Decline to Administer Consumer Debt Arbitrations until Fairness Standards are Established New York, NY– (July 23, 2009) – The American Arbitration Association (AAA), the world’s largest conflict management and dispute resolution services organization, today recommended in a House subcommittee hearing that the process surrounding consumer debt collection arbitration needs major reform and recommended a national policy committee to identify and research solutions. AAA said it will not administer any consumer debt collection programs until those solutions are determined. AAA senior vice president Richard Naimark told the Domestic Policy Subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that the AAA “has not administered significant numbers of debt collection arbitrations relative to some other organizations,” and has not handled any since June after it concluded a single high-volume program. However, he said that AAA had independently reviewed areas of the process and concluded that it had some weaknesses. As a result of that review, it is evident to the AAA that “a series of important fairness and due process concerns must be addressed and resolved before we will proceed with the administration of any consumer debt collection programs.” According to Mr. Naimark, areas needing attention from the national policy committee include consumer notification, arbitrator neutrality, pleading and evidentiary standards, respondents’ defenses and counterclaims, and arbitrator training and recruitment. “AAA has been working with the Domestic Policy Subcommittee to review potential improvements in consumer debt collection arbitration procedures for some time. We believe that arbitration can play a major role in consumer debt collection disputes. A national policy committee dedicated to meaningful reform can enhance an array of due process elements so that there is deeper fairness and transparency. Consumers deserve an alternative to litigation, but they also need to be able to trust that option. Our goal will be to achieve that trust,” Mr. Naimark said after the hearing. “We have been studying this issue for some time. We made our decision to impose a moratorium on administering consumer debt arbitration independently and not at the behest of any outside entity as has been claimed. We commend the Domestic Policy Subcommittee for its initiatives to protect consumers in debt collection cases, and we will continue to work with it willingly and enthusiastically,” Mr. Naimark said.