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Posts Tagged ‘Modifying or Correcting Awards’

Arbitration Law FAQ Guide: Challenging Arbitration Awards under the Federal Arbitration Act

September 9th, 2018 Arbitration and Mediation FAQs, Arbitration Practice and Procedure, Awards, Challenging Arbitration Awards, Grounds for Vacatur, Judicial Review of Arbitration Awards, Nuts & Bolts, Nuts & Bolts: Arbitration 3 Comments »

Introduction

This two-part Arbitration Law FAQ guide is designed to provide individuals and businesses with a basic overview of what the Federal Arbitration Act has to say about challenging arbitration awards in court. This is Part I and Part II is here.

It assumes that the award is governed by the Federal Arbitration Act; the challenge is made in a federal district court having subject matter and personal jurisdiction; and venue is proper.

This guide is not legal advice or a substitute for legal advice. If you are an individual or business which wants or has to challenge or defend an arbitration award, or make an application to confirm the award, then you should consult with an attorney or firm that has experience and expertise in arbitration law matters.

  1. I just received an arbitration award against me, which I believe is governed by the Federal Arbitration Act (the “FAA”). Does the FAA allow me to appeal the award to a court?

Challenging Arbitration Awards 1

Challenging Arbitration Awards 1

You cannot—at least in any meaningful sense of the word—“appeal” an FAA-governed arbitration award to a court. An appeal involves judicial review by an appellate court under which a panel of judges reviews trial-court rulings on questions of law independently—that is, as if the appellate court were deciding the question for itself in the first instance. The appellate court generally reviews the trial court’s findings of fact on a “clearly erroneous” or “clear error” standard of review, that is, paying a certain degree of deference to the finder of fact (the jury or, in a bench trial, the judge). Appellate review of a court decision is thus fairly broad and searching, particularly where outcomes turn solely on questions of law.

When a person agrees to arbitrate it gives up the right to appellate review, which focuses on issues relating to the merits of the case the court decided or on important litigation-procedure rulings.

  1. Does the FAA permit a party to challenge an arbitration award?

Challenging Arbitration Awards 2

Challenging Arbitration Awards 2

The Federal Arbitration Act provides some limited remedies for challenging arbitration awards where a party can show certain kinds of unusual and material violations of an arbitration agreement by an arbitrator or an opposing party, or an obvious mathematical, typographical, or technical error that appears on the face of the award. The remedies are orders: (a) modifying or correcting the award; or (b) vacating the award in whole or in part.

To vacate an award means to annul it, that is, to declare it null and void. When an award is vacated, then the parties generally must (absent a settlement) go back and re-arbitrate the matters that were the subject of the award.  When an award is modified or corrected, the correction or modification may be made by the court, or the court may remand the matter back to the arbitrators for that purpose. Continue Reading »

Federal Arbitration Act Litigation Procedure Blog Posts on Final Arbitration Awards

December 30th, 2014 Arbitration and Mediation FAQs, Arbitration Practice and Procedure, Awards, Confirmation of Awards, Functus Officio, Grounds for Vacatur, Judicial Review of Arbitration Awards, Loree & Loree Arbitration-Law Blogs, Nuts & Bolts, Nuts & Bolts: Arbitration, United States Supreme Court Comments Off on Federal Arbitration Act Litigation Procedure Blog Posts on Final Arbitration Awards

Back when we began posting in 2009 we published a “Nuts & Bolts”  series post about final arbitration awards, which you can read here. Interestingly, enough, that post, according to Google Analytics statistics, is one of the (if not the) most popular post we’ve ever published.

That may seem a bit strange, but it’s really not. Whether or not an arbitration award is a final arbitration award bears on a number of important issues, including whether the award can be confirmed, vacated, modified or corrected, and whether it is a decision that the arbitrators have the authority to revisit. And whether or not an arbitration award can be confirmed, vacated, modified or corrected before the conclusion of an ongoing arbitration proceeding has obvious time-bar consequences in light of the short limitation periods for confirming, vacating, modifying and correcting awards: to avoid forfeiture, it may be necessary to commence post-award Federal Arbitration Act enforcement proceedings before the arbitration proceeding has concluded. (See Loree Reins. & Arb. L. Forum posts here & here.)

Given the recent launch of  the Federal Arbitration Act Litigation Procedure Blog, and the need to start posting what we hope will be interesting and useful material, we decided to kick-off with the finality topic. Earlier today we published the first  segment of the series Federal Arbitration Act Finality: Is this Arbitration Decision a Final Award, An Interim Final Award, a Partial Award, a Partial Final Award or. . . What??, which you can read here.

That post outlines the topic and describes a hypothetical arbitration that gives rise to five types of awards and rulings, four of which are issued prior to the award that concludes the arbitration. Future posts  will discuss whether or not each type of award is, or may in some circumstances be, a final arbitration award for  purposes of Chapter 1 of the Federal Arbitration Act.

Another thing we’ll discuss will be the affect, if any, of Stolt-Nielsen, S.A. v. AnimalFeeds Int’l Corp., 559 U.S. 662 (2010) on the final award issue. Of all the many issues discussed in the Stolt-Nielsen case the one we hear relatively little commentary about is the Supreme Court’s rejection of the dissent’s argument that the class-arbitration consent award was not ripe for judicial review.  See 559 U.S. at 667 n.2. As part of the Federal Arbitration Act Litigation Procedure Blog final-award series, we’ll consider that aspect of the Supreme Court’s ruling and its relevance to the question whether a partial award can be a partial final award if the parties consent.

And unless we  somehow feel compelled  to publish yet another post this year, we’d like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy and prosperous New Year!

Philip J. Loree Jr.