Arbitration & Mediation

Breaking News: U.S. Supreme Court Hands Down First Arbitration Decision of 2010

By Christopher B. Hopkins, Esq.

The U.S. Supreme Court handed down its first arbitration decision of the year in Stolt-Nielsen v. Animalfeeds Int'l Corp. The issue involved class action arbitration and whether such was permissible when the agreement was silent on class status. We previously covered the case here.

The Court held that the arbitrators exceeded their powers by allowing class arbitration stating, more formally, "imposing class arbitration on parties who have not agreed to authorize class arbitration is inconsistent with the FAA."

We're still waiting on a decision in Rent-A-Center West, Inc. v. Jackson, which is still pending at the High Court.

The Wall Street Journal is already heralding this decision as "Time to Tighten Up Those Arbitration Agreements." USAToday briefly knocked the opinion as a 5-3 "ideologically split decision."

We will have more detailed coverage and analysis shortly. For the moment, the opinion (Alito) and dissent (Ginsburg) are here and here.

Full post as published by Florida Arbitration Law on April 27, 2010 (boomark / email).