The end is near for the Georgia Arbitration Act and other state laws that include limits on arbitration.  

Last fall, in Waffle House v. Pavesi, the Georgia Court of Appeals issued a decision requiring the arbitration of certain personal injury claims. At first glance, the decision seems rather innocuous—a contract interpretation holding that the parties chose to be governed by the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). Yet, in a concurrence, Judge Christopher McFadden argued that the parties’ choice of law was irrelevant because, among other things, the U.S. Supreme Court’s binding precedent holds that the FAA pre-empts any state law that might have otherwise applied. And with that, the Georgia Arbitration Act may find itself discarded to the scrap heap of history.