The judges of the Delaware Chancery Court have been sued in the US District Court for operating a private arbitration system.  The case of Delaware Coaltion for Open Government v. The Honorable Leo E. Streine, Jr. was filed yesterday, October 25th. Several years ago the legislature passed a law authorizing the court to conduct private arbitrations entitled “Arbitration Proceedings for … Continue reading Delaware’s Arbitration System for Business Disputes – Unconstitutional? →

A column in today’s L.A. Times mentions last week’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the proposed Arbitration Fairness Act (S. 987), and voices generally the consumer’s views against mandatory arbitration.  The consumer columnist, David Lazarus, notes that the bill’s chance of emerging from the Republican-controlled House are “slim to none at the moment.”

In a decision with potentially far-reaching importance for the scope of permissible arbitrations in FINRA’s dispute resolution forum, the Second Circuit held yesterday that an issuer who purchases auction-facilitating services for its auction rate securities from a broker-dealer is a “customer” of that broker-dealer within the meaning of FINRA Rule 12200.  See UBS Financial Services Inc. … Continue reading Second Circuit expands FINRA’s arbitration jurisdiction →

Please pass along this announcement to any law students who might be interested: Sponsored by Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association, the James E. Beckley Student Writing Competition is a writing contest for law students interested in Securities Arbitration and Securities Law. First Prize is $1000, Second Prize is $750, and Third Prize is $500. The PIABA Bar Journal Board-of-Editors publish the … Continue reading Announcing the 2011 Beckley Student Writing Competition on Securities Arbitration →

From SCOTUSblog earlier this week: Guest contributors consider the implications of the Court’s recent arbitration decisions, including AT&T v. Concepcion, Stolt-Nielsen v. AnimalFeeds, Rent-A-Center v. Jackson, and Hall Street v. Mattel. In our final symposium before the October Term begins, guest contributors (listed below in alphabetical order) will consider questions relating to the Court’s Federal … Continue reading SCOTUSblog Kicks Off Symposium on Arbitration and the Court →

At the Securities Arbitration 2011 program at the Practising Law Institute a few weeks ago (which I Chaired), Linda Fienberg, President of FINRA Dispute Resolution, announced that FINRA has developed a program to permit its arbitration forum to administer disputes between investors and registered investment advisers.  FINRA has developed this plan because the SEC is … Continue reading FINRA Ready to Offer Arbitration Forum for Investment Advisers →

In light of all of the arbitration opinions coming out of the US Supreme Court the last several years, not to mention the Court’s recent decision to grant cert  in CompuCredit v. Greenwood, the AALS ADR Section has issued a call for papers for its upcoming program at the AALS Conference in January 2012.  The explanatory … Continue reading Call for Papers: The Supreme Court and the Future of Arbitration →