New US Supreme Court Ruling Restricts Challenges To Arbitrator Decisions Imposing Class Arbitration

On June 10, 2013, the US Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in Oxford Health Plans LLC v. Sutter, a potentially important ruling limiting the ability of arbitration defendants to challenge arbitration decisions imposing class arbitration. (WilmerHale represented the petitioner, Oxford Health Plans.) The Court held that an arbitrator's decision interpreting the parties' arbitration contract to allow class arbitration is shielded from subsequent challenge in court if the parties agreed to allow the arbitrator to determine in the first instance whether class arbitration is available, even if the arbitrator made a "grave error" in concluding, based on the arbitration agreement, that the parties authorized class arbitration. But the Court pointedly reserved the question whether, absent agreement otherwise, the availability of class arbitration is a "gateway" issue to be decided by courts rather than arbitrators, which suggests a path forward for future