National Paralegal College Business Law Case Study

Todd, a client of yours in Hartford, Connecticut, calls you up one day and says, “As you know, I am an electrician who specializes in the installation of electricity in newly constructed commercial buildings as well as in private homes. I’m thinking of inserting a provision in all of my contracts that requires any dispute to first be mediated and then, if that doesn’t work, to be arbitrated by an arbitrator who is a member of the American Arbitration Association. However, I’m a little nervous as to whether courts will enforce these sorts of provisions, especially if they’re part of my form contract. Do me a favor: Please let me know what the courts’ attitudes have been towards arbitration and mediation clauses and, in general, what the courts have said about the desirability of using ADR methods to settle disputes.”

Please read the following cases:

Moses H. Cone Mem’l Hosp. v. Mercury Constr. Corp., 460 U.S. 1 (1983) and

AT&T Techs. v. Communs. Workers of Am., 475 U.S. 643 (1985).