For those of you interested in class arbitration law, I wanted to pass along news of this decision, via this headline in Lexology (with a H/T to George Friedman for tweeting it to my attention): “A First in the Second (Circuit): On Remand, District Court Breaks New Ground by Vacating Arbitrator’s Class Certification Award.”

Here is the opening line of the article: “In what appears to be a first-of-its-kind ruling, the District Court for the Southern District of New York recently concluded that a federal district court has the authority to vacate an arbitrator’s class certification award based on the due process rights of absent class members.” The underlying case is Jock v. Sterling Jewelers, Inc., 08 Civ. 2875, 2018 WL 418571 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 15, 2018), and plaintiffs have already filed a notice of appeal.

If upheld, this case is an ominous signal for the future of class arbitration.