NJ Supreme Court on arbitration: tougher than the rest?

April 09, 2015 | By MARK MILLER

 

PLF went racing in the streets this week up to the swamps of Jersey to file an amicus brief in an arbitration case pending at the New Jersey Supreme Court. In Morgan v. Sanford Brown, we argue that the Court should uphold a lower court decision to enforce an arbitration agreement and send the parties to arbitration. PLF has reason to believe that the New Jersey Supreme Court should be true to the words of the contract and agree that the parties must arbitrate their dispute.

The last time we visited this court for an arbitration case, in a case called Atalese v. U.S. Legal Services Group, P.L., we left with sad eyes. But that’s the price you may pay anytime you roll the dice in court. And it’s no secret that in the Garden State the courts do not always interpret arbitration agreements in a way necessarily consistent with the actual terms of the agreement.

That is why U.S. Legal Services Group now seeks review of the Atalese case at the U.S. Supreme Court; it has high hopes for a meeting across the (Delaware) river (and then some) with the nine justices of the Court. We filed an amicus brief in that case, too; in the real world, people should hold up their ends of the bargain when they freely enter a contract with another.

Regardless of how Atalese and Morgan turn out, however, PLF can make you one promise. We will continue to fight for free enterprise, liberty, and the right to equal justice for all: no retreat, no surrender.