The biggest development in arbitration in 2012 may be what failed to develop in the continuing debate over how much disclosure by a potential arbitrator is enough to avoid a post-arbitration claim of evident partiality.
Appellate opinions discussing this issue tend to be decided on a case-by-case, fact-intensive basis; however, a few guiding principles seem obvious. The 5th Court of Appeals in Dallas’ decision in Karlseng v. Cook (2011)appeared to open the door to post-arbitration litigation on a large scale, but the 5th Court soon narrowed that opening in its 2012 holding in Ponderosa Pine Energy v. Tenaska Energy Inc. Now, a challenger’s zeal should be tempered so long as some disclosure enough to put a party on notice is made.
