Almost three years ago, we started monitoring the rapidly developing law of arbitration by way of a CLE paper Karl presented to a State Bar seminar in Dallas. That paper was called Standards of Review as Applied to Arbitral Decisions, and at its conclusion we advised seminar attendees and other readers that even though arbitral awards were for most intents and purposes not appealable, nothing prevented parties, in the Fifth Circuit anyway, from c

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Today was a busy day at the U.S. Supreme Court; five opinions were handed down. Others have commented about them all. One of the opinions, however, discusses Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) preemption of state administrative proceedings and as such is something we need to mention. The case, Preston vs. Ferrer (link is to .pdf file), involves a dispute between noted television jurist Judge Alex and an attorney who may or may not have b

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We’ve blogged before, on numerous occasions, about McCarran-Ferguson Reverse Preemption of the Federal Arbitration Act. Specifically, we’ve blogged about the Kepka case out of Houston, whereby the Court held that Texas medical malpractice legislation, which holds that an agreement to arbitrate a med-mal case must be signed by both the plaintiff and the plaintiff’s attorney, was legislation to regulate the insurance industry, and

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Well, the Texas Appellate Law Blog scooped us on a Third Court of Appeals opinion handed down today in which the Court refuses to compel arbitration under either the TAA or the FAA. We will not simply recap what Mr. Smith has already posted on the subject, but we wanted to make a couple additional points about the interesting opinion. Really, the case is more about motion practice and Texas appellate practice than arbitrability issues. Judge Yele

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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

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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

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Barry Barnett’s Blawgletter discussed a recent Second Circuit arbitrability opinion yesterday (Ross v. American Express). The opinion holds that Section 16 of the FAA, which allows interlocutory appeal of an order refusing to compel arbitration, applies in cases where the motion to compel arbitration was based not on a written agreement to arbitrate, but upon estoppel principles by which courts sometime compel non-signatories to arbitrate (

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Well, the Florida arbitration blog has another interesting post today. It concerns a Missouri case where a court refused to compel arbitration of a wrongful death case against a nursing home. According to that case, since the Missouri wrongful death statute creates a new cause of action in favor of the decedent’s statutory beneficiaries, and it is not a cause of action that the decedent could have had prior to his/her death, the statutory b

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This morning, the Texas Supreme Court issued an opinion compelling arbitration of certain claims asserted by the Brownsville Independent School District against an air conditioning company relating to the construction of a school. The Court starts its opinion by clarifying the relationship between the FAA and the TAA in Texas courts. So long as state law does not conflict with the FAA to the extent state law would preclude arbitration (such as in

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As you may or may not recall, we discussed the doctrine of McCarran-Ferguson Reverse Preemption some time ago and noted that it was working its way through the Texas Courts of Appeals. This past week (on January 11 actually), the Fifth Circuit weighed in, affirming a trial court denial of a motion to compel arbitration on McCarran Ferguson grounds. Under Mississippi law, an uninsured motorist automobile insurance policy cannot require arbitration

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