The Second Circuit reminded us yesterday that judicial review of arbitration awards is “among the most deferential in the law.” And when district courts are not sufficiently deferential, their decisions are likely to be overturned. That happened recently in Tom Brady’s “deflate-gate” arbitration, and in an arbitration over how much a pedestrian was owed after a car accident.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the appellate court’s description of the Brady arbitration sounds like an entire different proceeding than the one described by the district court. This opinion describes the evidence against Brady to support the conclusion that he participated in the scheme to deflate game balls (not just was “generally aware”). It makes ten hours of testimony and 300 exhibits sound exorbitant. And it places significant emphasis on the cell phone destruction.
