The goal of arbitration is to provide a faster, less costly, and more private alternative to litigation in a courtroom. In exchange for these advantages, the parties agree in advance that they will share the costs of the arbitration proceedings and will be bound by its results. But what happens if, between the time the agreement is signed and when a dispute later arises, one of parties suffers a financial reversal and cannot afford to pay its share of the arbitration fees and costs?
When you sign a contract, you expect to be bound by its terms. But what happens when several contracts all relate to one transaction, and they differ slightly in some details – for example, on whether disputes are subject to arbitration?
It’s not unusual for a potential beneficiary to question the wording of a will or trust, claiming that the document doesn’t mean what it says. But it is much less common for the person questioning the wording to be the person who created the document.
When you are asking a court to deprive someone of a fundamental constitutional right, saying that you “believe” the person “likely” agreed to that surrender isn’t a very persuasive argument.
When Mom has dementia and her daughter, as her authorized representative, is handling her health care decisions, does the daughter have the power to sign a residential care facility’s arbitration clause on Mom’s behalf?
If a hotel, store, or other commercial building becomes unusable because of contamination by asbestos or noxious or dangerous chemicals, the resulting losses to the building’s owner would probably be covered by property insurance policies. So why are losses linked to COVID-19 any different?
