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Despite the U.S. Supreme Court's increasing support for arbitration throughout the U.S. legal system over the last 20 years, the State of California continues to assert itself as an unfriendly domain for the process. Recent bouts between the Supreme Court of California and the U.S. Supreme Court punctuate California's resistance. In Round One, the California Supreme Court refused to order arbitration as called for by the parties' agreement regarding a dispute between a TV judge, Alex Ferrer, and his former lawyer, Arnold Preston. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the California decision asserting the supremacy of the Federal Arbitration Act's preference for arbitration over a conflicting state law, giving round one to the U.S. Supreme Court. In Round Two — Hall Street Associates v. Mattel — the U.S. Supreme Court held that arbitration awards can only be reviewed by courts on the limited standards set forth in the Federal Arbitration Act. In Cable Connection v. Direct TV, decided in August, the California Supreme Court rejected the U.S. Supreme Court's reasoning in Hall Street for arbitration awards governed by California's Arbitration Act, scoring round two for the California Supreme Court. Round Three is ongoing, says H. Roderic Heard, a member of Wildman Harrold's Executive Committee and a partner in the firm's litigation practice group. "The California Supreme Court's repeated resistance to the finality of an arbitrator's award will continue," says Heard. "For the last 50 years, the U.S. Supreme Court has encouraged arbitration as a private means of dispute resolution, but many states, especially California, have resisted. The dueling will continue." Heard, who teaches Commercial Arbitration and International Arbitration and Dispute Resolution as an adjunct professor at Northwestern and DePaul's law schools, is available to author a bylined article lending an overview of recent cases and the impact that California's resistance to arbitration has on the rest of the country. [10/09/2008]
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