Retainer Contractual Arbitration Remedy Enforced By Appellate Court.
Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger LLP v. Rosenson (2d Dist., Div. 5 Feb. 15, 2012) (certified for publication) involved a retainer agreement between a law firm and client providing for binding arbitration of fee disputes. Within 30 days of a nonbinding arbitration award under the Mandatory Fee Arbitration Act (MFAA), firm demanded binding arbitration pursuant to the retainer. The client sought to confirm the MFAA arbitration award, which the trial court did after deciding that the law firm needed to compel arbitration through a court petition rather than simply demanding arbitration (as it did) after the MFAA award was issued.
Nope, law firm didn’t have to do that. It was simply enforcing its retainer rights, given that the retainer did mandate using binding contractual arbitration as the ADR method to resolve fee disputes. Besides, the client had not formally refused to arbitrate, so any petition to compel was premature even under MFAA. Lower court decision reversed.
Above: Faithful Retainer.
