Week 1 Assignment

Alternative Dispute Resolution

Amber Kekauoha

Law 531

August 08, 2016

Marlene Wilihite

Alternative Dispute Resolution

Introduction

        Vincent and Liza Conception got a contract for the sale and service of cell phones threw AT&T mobility LLC. In the contract is called for arbitration of al disputes between the parties. The Conception’s were charged $30.22 in sales tax on a free phone. They were suing for false advertising and fraud by charging sales tax on phones that they have advertised as free. (Mallor, Barnes, & Langvard, 2016, chapter 2). They were supposed to go through arbitration but if a judge feels it is not going to work then they go to court. There are several reasons to do an alternative dispute resolution and some of those include; fairness, effectiveness, liberty, and transparency. (Ionescu, 2015)This all helps with getting the right ADR for the Right situation.

Legal form of business of the Business involved

        AT&T is the business involved in my ADR and they are a LLC which stands for limited liability Company. LLC is different than a partnership. They are no corporate firms, members participate in management, less public shareholders, don’t participate directly with management, and security. (Ribstein, 1994) Members do not have to worry about security because they are not part of the debt. They have statutory control rights as well.  (Ribstein, 1994). Limited liability companies do not have to worry about the numbers or what type of owners they are. (Mallor, Barnes, & Langvardt, 2016, Chapter 37).

Court system

        In the contract it stated that they do arbitration but in California the laws protect them in the case that unconscionability so it then moved to discover bank vs superior court. The Us Court of appeals for the ninth circuit. They granted AT&T’s request. (Mallor, Barnes, & Langvardt, 2016, Chapter 37). They wanted to switch it to a class act. They had to figure out a settlement. The court system had to take over and make a decision because of what they were being charged with which was false advertisement, fraud by charging tax on a free phone.

ADR Recommendation Vs Litigation that may have occurred

        The ADR that they were going to use was arbitration and they felt like that was not going to work. If I was going to choose one I would have talked AT&T into a settlement because there is no since in spending all the money going through the court system and all that when they know that they are probably not going to win. Since most cases are not closed yet that they go through similar to this one in California. (Mallor, Barnes, & Langvardt, 2016, Chapter 37).