Lawyers
Litigation partners Will Marks and Randy Luskey earned a Litigator of the Week shout-out from The American Lawyer’s “Litigation Daily” column for securing an appellate victory on behalf of Avis Budget Group in a proposed consumer class action. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held that Avis Budget had not waived its contractual right to arbitration by litigating into discovery before moving to compel arbitration.
In a precedential opinion on August 24, the Third Circuit vacated a district court decision finding that Avis Budget had relinquished its right to arbitrate under the customers’ rental agreements. The panel unanimously concluded that the company’s decision to wait until after deposing the two lead plaintiffs, both citizens of the United Kingdom, before seeking to compel arbitration did not establish “an intentional relinquishment or abandonment of the right to arbitrate.” Rather, the court found that the company’s conduct was consistent with developing the factual record necessary to support its arbitration motion. The case was remanded for reconsideration of Avis Budget’s motion to compel arbitration.
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