In Review

It can be tempting for businesses to recycle old legal forms without involving a lawyer, and for some things it probably makes dollars sense. But a case today from the Mississippi Supreme Court shows why it's a good idea, at a minimum, to have a lawyer review and update old forms on a semi-regular basis.

In this case, a homebuilder's contract included an arbitration provision that said the buyers couldn't sue in court. But the arbitrators that the homebuilder selected had closed shop in 1996! The trial court tried to uphold the provision and send the parties to different arbitrators, but the Supreme Court disagreed, invalidated the entire arbitration provision, and sent the parties for a full blown court case--which will likely take longer, be more expensive, and result in greater exposure to the homebuilder.