This article is about two phenomena which currently impact the business of dispute resolution: The Vanishing Trial and the 30-70 %-Disease. What lies behind those two catch-words and why are both highly relevant for arbitration practitioners? Here is the proposed answer: The Vanishing Trial has been a long established phenomenon in the United States where the number of actually tried cases has been falling sharply for decades. Now, this trend is spotted in Germany as…
California continued its ongoing debate on arbitrations and class actions in July when its Supreme Court held that in some…
In Sgouros v. TransUnion Corp., No. 15-1371 (7th Cir. Mar. 25, 2016), the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals…
In Western Security Bank v. Winzenreid, No. 15-35617 (9th Cir. Mar. 14, 2016), the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that it lacked jurisdiction to review an order denying a stay pending arbitration where the movant did not seek to compel arbitration. In December 2011, Plaintiff entered into loan agreements with (i) Defendants, (ii) Meridian Surgical Partners (“Meridian”) and (iii) Omni Funding Corp. (“Omni”). Plaintiff loaned more than $2 million for construction of an ambulatory surgical…
In Nelson v. Watch House Int’l, L.L.C., No. 15-10531 (5th Cir. Mar. 2, 2016), the Fifth Circuit found an…
In Dell Webb Communities, Inc. v. Carlson, No. 45-1385 (4th Cir. Dec. 9, 2015), the Fourth Circuit held…
In Albaniabeg Ambient Sh.p.k. v. Enel S.p.A. and Enelpower S.p.A., No. 15 Civ. 3283 (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 11, 2016), the District Court for the Southern District of New York concluded that Section 203 of the FAA and the New York Convention do not provide subject matter jurisdiction over actions to enforce a foreign court’s judgment, even where a party contends that the foreign judgment is inconsistent with an earlier arbitral award or agreement to arbitrate. In…
In Al Rushaid v. National Oilwell Varco, Inc., No. 15-20260 (5th Cir. Feb. 17, 2016), the Fifth Circuit…
In Nesbitt v. FCNH, Inc., No. 14-1502 (10th Cir. Jan. 5, 2016), the Tenth Circuit upheld the denial of…
Any company that makes sales through the Internet to New Jersey consumers should be aware of a recent trend in consumer class actions based on New Jersey’s Truth-in-Consumer Contract, Warranty and Notice Act (the “TCCWNA”), N.J.S.A. 56:1214, et seq. The plaintiff’s bar is attracted to the TCCWNA as a basis for consumer class actions because, like many other statutes underlying consumer class actions , it provides for statutory damages and attorneys’ fees to consumers even…