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Courts Stopping Non-Signatories From Compelling Arbitration Through Equitable Estoppel
October 30, 2013
Now that we know the Supreme Court is not going to be addressing non-signatories’ ability to compel arbitration this term (at least not in the Toyota case), we can take a moment to look at what lower courts are doing with that issue. In short, the trend is for courts to clarify that it is very difficult for defendants who do not have an arbitration agreement with the plaintiff (non-signatories) to use equitable estoppel to compel arbitration of the plaintiff’s claims based on the plaintiff’s...
October 30, 2013
Now that we know the Supreme Court is not going to be addressing non-signatories’ ability to compel arbitration this term (at least not in the Toyota case), we can take a moment to look at what lower courts are doing with that issue. In short, the trend is for courts to clarify that it is very difficult for defendants who do not have an arbitration agreement with the plaintiff (non-signatories) to use equitable estoppel to compel arbitration of the plaintiff’s claims based on the plaintiff’s...
Big Data’s Just a Lot of Noise…Unless You Can Visualize It Panelists Say
October 29, 2013
When you get right down to it, all the data in the world doesn’t really make a difference unless you can process it. And the most effective way for people to process giant waves of data (they keep inventing new words to describe the quantity) is to see it as an image. That seemed to be the bottom line on the panel hosted by TechAmerica Foundation for its Big Data Roadshow on Energy. Brian Jones, a principal of SAP Energy and Utilities, moderated the panel. He explained that big data and visualization...
October 29, 2013
When you get right down to it, all the data in the world doesn’t really make a difference unless you can process it. And the most effective way for people to process giant waves of data (they keep inventing new words to describe the quantity) is to see it as an image. That seemed to be the bottom line on the panel hosted by TechAmerica Foundation for its Big Data Roadshow on Energy. Brian Jones, a principal of SAP Energy and Utilities, moderated the panel. He explained that big data and visualization...
Two New US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Arbitration Decisions
October 29, 2013
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit released two opinions yesterday of some interest. In Chavarria v. Ralphs Grocery Company (No. 11-56673, October 28, 2013), the Court of Appeals held that the arbitration provision in an employment agreement was unenforceable because it was “procedurally unconscionable because it was a condition of applying for employment and was presented on a “take it or leave it” basis. In addition, its terms were not provided to the plaintiff until three...
October 29, 2013
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit released two opinions yesterday of some interest. In Chavarria v. Ralphs Grocery Company (No. 11-56673, October 28, 2013), the Court of Appeals held that the arbitration provision in an employment agreement was unenforceable because it was “procedurally unconscionable because it was a condition of applying for employment and was presented on a “take it or leave it” basis. In addition, its terms were not provided to the plaintiff until three...
Arbitration for the Trial Lawyer
October 29, 2013
Sooner or later, every trial lawyer with a commercial practice will end up in an arbitration. Perhaps the most likely scenario is a contract dispute between parties that have agreed to mandatory arbitration with a specified alternative dispute resolution provider, most commonly the American Arbitration Association (AAA). Your client asks you to handle the matter, but you have no experience with arbitration. Not to worry—there is nothing in the process that a good trial lawyer isn’t fully equipped...
October 29, 2013
Sooner or later, every trial lawyer with a commercial practice will end up in an arbitration. Perhaps the most likely scenario is a contract dispute between parties that have agreed to mandatory arbitration with a specified alternative dispute resolution provider, most commonly the American Arbitration Association (AAA). Your client asks you to handle the matter, but you have no experience with arbitration. Not to worry—there is nothing in the process that a good trial lawyer isn’t fully equipped...
NY Court of Appeals Denies Effort to Compel Non-Signatory to Arbitrate on “Direct Benefits Estoppel” Theory
October 29, 2013
The highest court in the State of New York, the New York Court of Appeals, last week rejected an effort to compel a non-signatory respondent to arbitrate tax reimbursement claims on a theory of “direct benefits estoppel.” Given the commercial and financial importance of New York and the influence of the New York State courts, the case is of interest. The Court agreed that the “direct benefits estoppel” theory was available to bind non-signatories to arbitrate, but that the particular...
October 29, 2013
The highest court in the State of New York, the New York Court of Appeals, last week rejected an effort to compel a non-signatory respondent to arbitrate tax reimbursement claims on a theory of “direct benefits estoppel.” Given the commercial and financial importance of New York and the influence of the New York State courts, the case is of interest. The Court agreed that the “direct benefits estoppel” theory was available to bind non-signatories to arbitrate, but that the particular...
Comparison of International Arbitration Rules
October 29, 2013
Thanks to Deborah Rothman, here is a link to a chart comparing the arbitration rules of some of the best-known international arbitration organizations, such as ICC, UNCITRAL, HKIAC and LCIA, with regard to such factors as the default number of arbitrators, language of the proceedings, submission of evidence, non-appearing parties and interim measures. The chart was done by Kennedys, an international law firm.
October 29, 2013
Thanks to Deborah Rothman, here is a link to a chart comparing the arbitration rules of some of the best-known international arbitration organizations, such as ICC, UNCITRAL, HKIAC and LCIA, with regard to such factors as the default number of arbitrators, language of the proceedings, submission of evidence, non-appearing parties and interim measures. The chart was done by Kennedys, an international law firm.
Flexible Processing and Classification for eDiscovery
October 28, 2013
A high-performance, scalable text processing pipeline for eDiscovery is outlined. The classification module of the pipeline is based on the random forest model which is fast, flexible and allows for relevance scoring and feature importance coupled with high-accuracy results. The feature selection approach combines natural language processing with legal domain input, and is based on regular expressions, which allows for linguistic variation and subtle fine-tuning. These two components of the pipeline...
October 28, 2013
A high-performance, scalable text processing pipeline for eDiscovery is outlined. The classification module of the pipeline is based on the random forest model which is fast, flexible and allows for relevance scoring and feature importance coupled with high-accuracy results. The feature selection approach combines natural language processing with legal domain input, and is based on regular expressions, which allows for linguistic variation and subtle fine-tuning. These two components of the pipeline...
Law Departments Taking Matters Into Their Own Hands
October 28, 2013
In-house attorneys are turning away from outside counsel and becoming increasingly self-reliant when it comes to serving...
October 28, 2013
In-house attorneys are turning away from outside counsel and becoming increasingly self-reliant when it comes to serving...
Judicial Ideology and the Selection of Disputes for U.S. Supreme Court Adjudication
October 28, 2013
In political science, the well-known “attitudinal model” of legal decision making dictates that judges' sincere policy preferences drive legal outcomes. In contrast, the celebrated “selection hypothesis” from the law and economics literature suggests that litigants carefully consider factors affecting potential case success (including judicial ideology) and accordingly choose, in the name of efficiency, to settle or not pursue cases in which legal outcomes can be readily predicted. Thus,...
October 28, 2013
In political science, the well-known “attitudinal model” of legal decision making dictates that judges' sincere policy preferences drive legal outcomes. In contrast, the celebrated “selection hypothesis” from the law and economics literature suggests that litigants carefully consider factors affecting potential case success (including judicial ideology) and accordingly choose, in the name of efficiency, to settle or not pursue cases in which legal outcomes can be readily predicted. Thus,...
The Effect of Legal Expert Commentary on Lay Judgments of Judicial Decision Making
October 28, 2013
The public's view of the judiciary is a key factor in the legitimacy of any legal system. Ideally, popular judgments of the adjudicative branch would be independent of the outcomes of the decisions it furnishes. In a previous study (Simon & Scurich 2011), we found that lay people's evaluations of the judicial decision-making process were highly contingent on the decision outcomes. Participants gave favorable evaluations of the judges and their decisions when they agreed with the judges' outcomes,...
October 28, 2013
The public's view of the judiciary is a key factor in the legitimacy of any legal system. Ideally, popular judgments of the adjudicative branch would be independent of the outcomes of the decisions it furnishes. In a previous study (Simon & Scurich 2011), we found that lay people's evaluations of the judicial decision-making process were highly contingent on the decision outcomes. Participants gave favorable evaluations of the judges and their decisions when they agreed with the judges' outcomes,...
