Arbitration - Getting More Scrutiny from the Courts

Nice to see that I was right on the trend, or at least in agreement with Professor St. Antoine among others. Various commentators with different perspectives offer their views on why it is that arbitration is now getting more scrutiny from the court system in today's law.com article. Last week talking about a new 5th Circuit decision, I had a similar comment:

It appears that we may be entering a new era of arbitration jurisprudence. Even though the concept has been reaffirmed, and is if anything more frequently being used, rather than less litigation about arbitration, we are going to have more. The difference is it will now focus on contract formation, program content, integrity of the process (both actual and perceived) and standards for reviewing decisions. Undoubtedly one of the things lost, or at least diminished, will be the benefits of quicker, cheaper final determinations. Jottings (2/27/03)

Whether this is temporary or a transition to a different form of dispute resolution remains to be seen. It does at least make me think that lawyers who are concerned about the diminishment of the role of the jury, regardless of what you think of their own self interest, have more of a point than I have been giving them.