{"id":13944,"date":"2011-07-07T09:39:07","date_gmt":"2011-07-07T14:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=13944"},"modified":"2011-07-07T09:39:53","modified_gmt":"2011-07-07T14:39:53","slug":"arbitrator%e2%80%99s-social-life-overturns-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2011\/07\/arbitrator%e2%80%99s-social-life-overturns-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Arbitrator\u2019s Social Life Overturns Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Dallas last week, a court overturned a $22 million (!)\u00a0arbitration decision because the arbitrator had failed to disclose that he had socialized with one of the lawyers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the Wall Street Journal law blog <\/a>reported:<\/p>\n

Arbitration awards, as most litigators know, are very difficult to overturn on appeal.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why a Dallas appellate court\u2019s decision this week to vacate a $22 million arbitration award is so notable.<\/p>\n

The reason for the appellate court\u2019s ruling: the arbitrator failed to disclose contacts he\u2019d had with a lawyer in the case, including attending a Dallas Mavericks basketball game and sharing meals with the attorney.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s<\/a> the story from the Texas Lawyer\u2019s TexParte blog and click here<\/a> to see the ruling setting aside the arbitration award.<\/p>\n

The ruling involves a partnership dispute arbitrated in 2007-08 by JAMS arbitrator Robert Faulkner. The winning party in the dispute was represented by Brett Johnson<\/a>, a partner at Fish & Richardson.<\/p>\n

Faulkner disclosed that he had presided over an arbitration involving Fish & Richardson, but he did not reveal any social contacts with Johnson.\u00a0 The contacts included the Mavericks game, several private meals, and Johnson\u2019s Christmas gift of a wine basket to Faulkner and the arbitrator\u2019s wife, according to the appellate court ruling.<\/p>\n

The court concluded the two men had a \u201cdirect, personal, professional, social and business relationship\u201d that should have been disclosed because it might give rise to a \u201creasonable impression\u201d that Faulkner would be partial to Johnson.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Although the lawyer claimed that the minor socializing was the same as with any lawyer, judge, or arbitrator, the court did not view it that way.\u00a0 The parties have not yet decided if they are going to appeal.\u00a0 Hat Tip and much appreciation\u00a0to Susan Franck for sending this along.<\/p>\n

Cross posted at Indisputably<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Dallas last week, a court overturned a $22 million (!)\u00a0arbitration decision because the arbitrator had failed to disclose that he had socialized with one of the lawyers.\u00a0 As the Wall Street Journal law blog reported: Arbitration awards, as most litigators know, are very difficult to overturn on appeal. That\u2019s why a Dallas appellate court\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-civil-procedure","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13944\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}