News & Publications

As we previously reported, from the end of 2019 through the first few months of 2020, a group of serial ADA plaintiffs barraged New York federal courts with over 200 boilerplate lawsuits alleging that retailers and other businesses violated the ADA and New York state and city laws by failing to offer for sale gift cards in Braille. In 2020, Judge Woods of the SDNY dismissed four of these cases, and plaintiffs appealed to the Second Circuit. On [...]

On May 23, the Supreme Court resolved a circuit split in holding that the Federal Arbitration Act's (FAA) "policy favoring arbitration" does not allow federal courts to create arbitration-specific federal procedural rules.1 Specifically, the Court took issue with the rule adopted by most federal circuits, under which waiver of an arbitration right required a showing of prejudice. Writing for a unanimous court, Justice Kagan provided important guidance on the enforceability of arbitration agreements in federal courts. [...]

On occasion, a development in the law while a case is pending on appeal may present an additional argument to raise. Although the general rule is that an appellant cannot raise issues for the first time on appeal, Michigan and federal courts have recognized an exception for changes in the law. As a general matter, an issue that is not preserved in the trial court will not be considered on appeal.1 As the Michigan Supreme Court [...]