Mediation Arbitration Specialist

Hot off the press... the Uniform Arbitration Act, Senate Bills 901, 902, and 903 as amended by House Bill No. 1 was passed today 108-0. The Bills will now go back to the Senate for routine passage of the House version which, for all practical purposes, only dealt with the effective dates of the legislation because of the delay between the time that Bills were passed by the Senate and now. We look forward to the statutes being signed by the Governor in the next couple of weeks and it will be effective as of July 1, 2013.

Uniform Arbitration Act Vote

Today the Revised Uniform Arbitration Act is scheduled to come up for a vote in the Michigan House of Representatives. Unless there is a "blow-up" over Michigan right to work laws before it gets to the RUAA on its agenda, we should know today if it passes . We are very optomistic.. Stand by for further updates.

The US Supreme Court in the case of Nitro-Lift Technologies LLC v Eddie Lee Howard et al on November 26th confirmed and enforced the rule originally declared in Prima Paint Corp v Flood & Conklin Mfg Co, Buckeye Check Cashing Inc v Cardegna, and Southland Corp v Keating that when parties commit to arbitrate contractual disputes, it is a mainstay of the Act's ( the FAA) substantive law that attacks on the validity of the the contract, as distinct from attachks ont he validity of the arbitration clause itself, are to be resolved by the arbitrator in the first instance and not be a federal or state court. An arbitration provision is severable from the remainder of the contract and its validity is subject to initial court determination, but the remainder of the contract ( if the arbitration clause is valid) is for the arbitrator to decide. This will put the exclamation point on the extent of an arbitrators authority to decide arbitability questions.

On November 8th, I testified before Michigan House of Representatives Judiciary Committee in support of the adoption of the Revised Uniform Arbitration Act. This was the House Bill substitute for Senate bills 901,902, and 903. I am happy to report that the Judciary Committee approved and supported the bills without dissent and voted in favor to report it to the House floor for vote. I was very appreciated of Senator Schuitmaker who took the time to appear before the House Committee and support the passage. At this time I urge anyone who reads this to contact their State Representative and urge them to urge the Speaker of the House to take this bill up quickly and before the end of this term. I want to thank all who have helped us get this far, and those who will get us over the hump. We need to have this legislation, since Michigan's existing arbitration statute was adopted in 1961 and has not been amended since then. It is antiquated and needs to be brought into the 21st century.

Just to let everyone know, on November 8th, The House Judiciary Committee will take up the Revised Uniform Arbitraiton Act. I will be testifying in support of the act and request that anyone out there that reads this blog send an e mail to support the passage of the RUAA ( Senate Bill 903) to the Committee's Counsel at [email protected]