Law360, New York (February 5, 2016, 11:58 AM EST) -- On Jan. 7, 2016, in Beacon Towers Condominium Trust v. Alex, No. SJC-11880, 473 Mass. 472 (2016), the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) held that a fee award entered against a party for making frivolous arguments and conducting an arbitration in bad faith must be vacated. Massachusetts law normally prohibits fee shifting in arbitration proceedings, unless it is explicitly provided in the agreement to arbitrate. Here, the court concluded that neither the language of the arbitration agreement nor the commercial arbitration rules of the American Arbitration Association, which governed the proceeding, provided the arbitration panel with authority to award attorneys' fees. The decision of the lower court vacating the panel's award of attorneys' fees was therefore affirmed....
Law360 is on it, so you are, too.
A Law360 subscription puts you at the center of fast-moving legal issues, trends and developments so you can act with speed and confidence. Over 200 articles are published daily across more than 60 topics, industries, practice areas and jurisdictions.
