FINRA Dispute Resolution announced earlier this week that it is expanding the pilot program it launched in 2008 to provide investors with more choice in selecting arbitrators for customer cases heard by FINRA arbitrators. Rather than being forced to select at least one industry arbitrator on all three-arbitrator panels, FINRA gave investors the right, in essence, to strike … Continue reading FINRA Expands Its Public Arbitrator Pilot Program
Two recent articles have been published regarding the evolving circuit split as to whether the “manifest disregard of the law” standard of review of arbitration awards survives the Supreme Court’s 2008 decision in Hall Street. Each article offers a different framework in which to analyze Hall Street and its impact on the manifest disregard standard of vacatur, … Continue reading Resolving the circuit split over manifest disregard
After enduring decades of TV shows about litigators, prosecutors, defenders and judges, we can look forward to viewing a new TV series that USA Network is poised to launch about a divorced lawyer turned mediator, according to this article in The Hollywood Reporter. It remains to be seen, however, whether the show will portray mediators fairly and accurately. … Continue reading Finally, a TV show about a mediator…
Teaching really does have its rewards. Last week I emphasized to the students in my Mediation & Arbitration class that one question they should ask themselves throughout the semester is whether the dispute resolution process used in any particular dispute is appropriate for that dispute. A few days later a student in that class brought this article to … Continue reading Mediating family religious disputes?
From Sharon Press at the Association for Conflict Resolution: Hopefully many of you already know about Conflict Resolution Day which is an annual event sponsored by the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR) to: promote awareness of mediation arbitration, conciliation and other creative, peaceful means of resolving conflict; promote the use of conflict resolution in schools, families, … Continue reading Conflict Resolution Day
I am reproducing here an e-mail announcement from ADR Prof Nancy Welsh that came across the ADR listserv earlier today: Dear Colleagues: On Friday, March 26, 2010, Penn State will hold a symposium addressing the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Ashcroft v. Iqbal. There will be three panels: * One panel will address Iqbal‘s implications … Continue reading Symposium at Penn State
A group of Holocaust survivors and Bank Leumi have agreed to arbitrate their four-year old dispute regarding the bank’s holding of funds deposited by its Jewish clients before World War II. See article here.
In an interesting development, Bank of America announced yesterday that it would remove its pre-dispute arbitration clause from its credit card agreements. See AP report here. This development cannot be a coincidence and surely is tied to the increasing Congressional scrutiny over mandatory consumer arbitration and the National Arbitration Forum’s decision to exit the consumer … Continue reading Bank of America Drops Credit Card Dispute Arbitration Requirement
The Pace Law School Investor Rights Clinic, pursuant to a generous grant from the FINRA Investor Education Foundation, has just published the Investor’s Guide to Securities Industry Disputes: How to Prevent and Resolve Disputes with Your Broker. This Guide, which I co-authored with Clinic Staff Attorney Alice Oshins, is designed to help individual investors with modest investment accounts … Continue reading Investor’s Guide to Securities Industry Disputes
The Associated Press reports: “The private developer of the World Trade Center site threatened Monday to go to an arbitrator unless he and the site’s owner quickly settle a monthslong impasse over how much each should pay to build office towers at ground zero.” How sad to see the terms “arbitrator” and “threaten” in the … Continue reading World Trade Center Developer Threatens Arbitration
