Georgia law provides an arbitrator’s award shall be vacated if the trial court finds the arbitrator manifestly disregarded the law.[1]  At first blush, this sounds straightforward, but it may not be as easy to prove as you think.

First, judicial review of arbitration awards under the Federal Arbitration Act is very limited.[2]  The movant has a heavy burden to show the law was not merely misinterpreted, but in fact was manifestly disregarded by the arbitrator.  This implies the arbitrator had knowledge of the law and based on her knowledge, chose to disregard it.  The court clarified this intent in a two-prong test, one objective and the other subjective.[3]

Under the objective test, the governing law alleged to have been ignored by the arbitrator must be well defined, explicit, and clearly applicable.  This is likely less of a problem to prove.  However, under the subjective test, the courts look to the actual knowledge of the law possessed by the arbitrator. The arbitrator must appreciate the existence of a clearly governing legal principle but decide to ignore or pay no attention to it.[4]  It is therefore imperative for the movant to prove such actual knowledge of the specific law allegedly disregarded.

In Fulton County. v. Lord,[5] the Georgia Court of Appeals found that absent an official record or language in the award, there was no evidence to the contrary to support a violation of the subject test.  Thus, without explicit evidence, the court will not infer manifest disregard of the law.

Litigants in arbitration should be cognizant of the need to protect the record when pleading legal averments and defenses.  Failure to do so could jeopardize appellant challenges and leave the movant with little where else to turn.