CCA Fellow Dana Welch provides a practical guide to challenging an arbitration award, a process with narrow legal grounds and low odds of success. She examines when vacatur may be warranted under the Federal Arbitration Act or California Arbitration Act, including fraud, arbitrator bias, procedural misconduct, exceeding arbitral authority, and manifest disregard of the law.
Welch also underscores the importance of determining which law governs and acting quickly, since the deadline to challenge an award is generally 100 days under California law and three months under the FAA.
Reprinted with permission from the publisher, Advocate magazine.
