Arbitration Enforcement, Proceedings

This article explains how two different Supreme Court decisions—the most recent issued on May 14, 2026—determine whether review of an arbitration award is properly in federal or state court. This in turn determines whether the procedure, timing, and standards to review the award are based on the Federal Arbitration Act or state law. The article explains how this choice can be determinative of the review’s outcome.

This article sets out seven key mistakes consumers make in attacking arbitration requirements: failing to first challenge delegation clauses; jumping into federal court; missing attacks on electronic consent and the contract’s language; mistaking the breadth of federal bans on arbitration; and underestimating arbitration’s ability to provide individual and even broad-based relief.

The AAA's consumer arbitration rules (new rules are effective May 1) offer multiple opportunities for consumers to avoid arbitration and bring an individual or class case in court. This article outlines four common mistakes a business can make that can lead the AAA to decline to arbitrate and can allow consumers to proceed to court. Small claims court also is always an option under the AAA's rules.

Frequently consumer claims are blocked from court, either because an arbitration provision is enforceable, or it is impractical to challenge the arbitration requirement. When a consumer’s claims are blocked from court, this article provides ten reasons why bringing the case in arbitration is always worth considering.

A May 16 Supreme Court ruling makes it almost impossible to appeal a federal court ruling enforcing an arbitration provision. This article explains not only the ruling’s negative consequences, but also, surprisingly, the advantages the ruling presents for consumers and workers. The article also sets out five approaches still available to reverse a decision enforcing an arbitration provision despite the Supreme Court ruling.

NCLC's new Arbitration Practice Checklist is a free tool that lists 75 ways to defeat an arbitration requirement. A new NCLC Digital Library article aggregates highlights from the new checklist. The article explains 12 lesser-known ways to defeat an arbitration requirement, 12 challenges that apply more often than expected, and the three biggest errors in challenging an arbitration requirement. Links are provided to this and ten other free practice checklists from NCLC.

Much consumer litigation today must deal with arbitration requirements. This arbitration litigation cheat sheet provides a quick listing of consumer options when faced with an arbitration demand—including both options to challenge the enforceability of the arbitration requirement as well as how to proceed in arbitration if that is the only remaining or even preferred option.

The recent Supreme Court ruling in Coinbase creates another impediment to consumer litigation: even when a consumer defeats an arbitration requirement, if the company then pursues an interlocutory appeal of that ruling, discovery and other proceedings are automatically put on hold until that appeal is resolved. This article offers five approaches to avoid or ameliorate the effect of this new obstacle to consumer litigation handed down by the Supreme Court.

On May 22, the Supreme Court overruled nine circuits in holding that a defendant’s waiver of arbitration must be treated like any other contractual right. No showing of prejudice to the plaintiff need be shown. This article examines the decision and arbitration waiver law generally. Importantly, also considered are the decision’s implications to assist a broad array of challenges to arbitration requirements.

Increasingly, consumers forced into arbitration seek to avail themselves of that process, but are frustrated by the defendant’s refusal to pay or otherwise participate in the proceeding. This article describes a state supreme court’s solution—the consumer can then go to court.