Arbitration preemption was close case

Trial Notebook

By Steven P. Garmisa

Hoey & Farina

Posted April 28, 2021 12:19 PM

This is the first of a two-part column. The second part will appear Thursday.In a narrow category of situations, states can sidestep the Federal Arbitration Act and provide special protections for consumers who mindlessly sign contracts with arbitration provisions. The Vermont Arbitration Act, for example, imposes a notice-and-acknowledgement requirement. But these local reforms only apply to transactions that don’t involve interstate commerce. And in what the Vermont Supreme Court called a “close case&rdquo …

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