Introduction

You will recall that the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reheard "en banc" in Fall 2006 their decision in the case of Positive Software Solutions v. New Century Mortgage. In the original Positive Software Solutions decision, as I have previously reported, the Fifth Circuit vacated an arbitration award on the basis that the sole arbitrator had failed to disclose a prior professional relationship with one of the attorneys in the law firm representing the winning party (respondents). The arbitrator had been mutually selected by both parties from a list of names provided by the ...