In Southwestern Elec. Power Co. v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyds of London, No. 13-31130 (5th Cir., November 24, 2014), a public power company operating in Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas, SWEPCO, purchased insurance coverage from United Kingdom-based Certain Underwriters at Lloyds of London (“Underwriters”) related to the construction of a Louisiana power plant. The parties’ insurance contract contained an arbitration clause.

In Part Two we urged that, while rule changes can be of some help in getting parties in litigation to a fair and efficient resolution, they are not a complete solution. Our concern is that fundamentally, changing rules changes how the game is played, not the fact that it is a game. We said we need a change that changes the incentive to play itself and suggested that Special Masters can change these incentives. OK, money where your mouth is time: how?

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has refused to enforce a mandatory arbitration provision that was included in a sales agreement against the spouse of a customer. In Joy Zinante v. Drive Electric, L.L.C., No. 14-20072 (5th Cir. 2014), a Texas couple’s home was unfortunately damaged in a fire that was apparently caused by a defective electric golf cart.

Maria Glover, Associate Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center, has authored an interesting scholarly article entitled, Disappearing Claims and the Erosion of Public Law, Yale Law Journal, Vol. 124, Forthcoming.