Honestly, I couldn’t really care one whit about the little locker room stare down between Roger Goodell and Tom Brady. Its just sports. A spinning teacher of mine once looked out at the class the day after a playoff or Super Bowl loss by the Patriots (I forget which) and said, in the middle of
Arbitration of Coverage Disputes
Reinsurance, Arbitrations and the Ever Increasing Authority of the Arbitrator
There has been a literal rush of interesting decisions out of the First Circuit and the Massachusetts District Court in the last few weeks, and I am going to try to catch up and comment on them over the next few days. One that jumped out at me, for various reasons, is a decision on whether…
An Emerging Consensus on Arbitrating Complex Commercial Disputes?
Well, I have written extensively on my skepticism about commercial arbitration as a tool for solving commercial disputes, and my belief that the courtroom is a better forum for most complex cases. It would take a lot of links to cover my past discussion of the pros and cons of this type of dispute resolution…
Legal Rights That Are Protected In Courts, May Well Be Lost In An Arbitration
I haven’t commented in the past on this, because there was too much else going on directly on point with ERISA. However, as many of you may know, the Supreme Court issued an opinion a week or two back in essence concluding that parties may not contract between themselves to allow a court to review…
Electronic Discovery and the Calculus of Arbitration
I have written before about electronic discovery and the amendments to the federal rules governing that discovery, and my theme has often been that the courts need to develop a jurisprudence concerning electronic discovery that carefully weighs the expense of the discovery versus the need for it before granting extensive (and expensive) electronic discovery. In…
Looking To Learn More About Commercial Arbitration?
Fair’s fair, I suppose. As I discussed here, a growing consensus has emerged concerning the limited value and not so limited failings of arbitration as a forum for resolving complex disputes; as I have discussed in other posts, such as here, the efficacy and value of arbitration really depends on the particulars of…
Commercial Arbitration and the Federal Arbitration Act
Very few things can still reduce me to an adolescent rumble of uttering very, very, very cool, and it is particularly remarkable when something in the practice of law has that effect. These three posts, from Workplace Prof, Adjunct Law Prof Blog, and SCOTUSBLOG had that effect on me when I came in…
Still More on the Pros and Cons of Arbitration
MassMutual Arbitration Award
Here is the story of the $50 million payday that the fired chief executive of MassMutual Financial Group has been awarded in an arbitration. There are a lot of lessons here, and maybe the first one is that in some instances it may just be better to be wrongly fired than rightly employed. Of course…
More Pros and Cons of Arbitration
I have written before about my view that arbitration is not necessarily preferable to litigation, and that, in my experience, litigation can be the better forum for resolving disputes. I know this runs contrary to the usual platitudinous bon mots frequently tossed off about the wonders of arbitration, but hard earned experience tends to discredit…