CEB has my article, “Arbitrator reversed for basing credibility on use of interpreter”

Tim Kowal January 12, 2024

CEB DailyNews has published my article, “Arbitrator reversed for basing credibility on use of interpreter.” The article is about FCM Invs. v. Grove Pham, LLC (D4d1 Oct. 17, 2023) No. D080801.

The arbitrator had ruled against the appellant based on a credibility determination, noting that “Mrs. Pham's use of an interpreter appeared to the Arbitrator to be a ploy to appear less sophisticated than she really is. She has been in the country for decades, has engaged in sophisticated business transactions and has herself functioned as an interpreter.”

That was held to be bias and reversible per se, and not forfeited even though the seller did not argue it in the trial court, and even though there was no reporter's transcript of the arbitration.

The original article is here.

Kowal_Arbitrator-Reversed Download

Tim Kowal is an appellate specialist certified by the California State Bar Board of Legal Specialization. Tim helps trial attorneys and clients win their cases and avoid error on appeal. He co-hosts the Cal. Appellate Law Podcast at CALpodcast.com, and publishes summaries of cases and appellate tips for trial attorneys. Contact Tim at [email protected] or (949) 676-9989.

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CEB has my article, “Arbitrator reversed for basing credibility on use of interpreter”

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"Upon putting laws into writing, they became even harder to change than before, and a hundred legal fictions rose to reconcile them with reality." — Will Durant

"It may be that the court is thought to be excessively legalistic. I should be sorry to think that it is anything else." — Hon. Sir Owen Dixon, Chief Justice of Australia

"A judge is a law student who grades his own papers." — H.L. Mencken

"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws." — Plato (427-347 B.C.)

Show neither partiality to the weak nor deference to the mighty, but judge your fellow men justly. — Leviticus

"Moot points have to be settled somehow, once they get thrust upon us. If an assertion cannot be proved, then it must be settled some other way, and nearly all of these ways are unfair to somebody." —T.H. White, The Once and Future King

"God made the angels to show Him splendor, … Man He made to serve Him wittily, in the tangle of his mind." — Sir Thomas More in Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons

"At common law, barratry was 'the offense of frequently exciting and stirring up suits and quarrels' (4 Blackstone, Commentaries 134) and was punished as a misdemeanor." — Rubin v. Green (1993) 4 Cal.4th 1187