USA Law and Practice Contributed by: Irwin A. Kishner, Daniel A. Etna, Joel Wagman and Barry Werbin, Herrick, Feinstein LLP
NFL The NFL CBA provides for arbitration of what are essentially labour disputes between the team and a player including salaries and whether an injury that precluded a player from performing was sustained as a result of play. 6.3 Challenging Sports Governing Bodies Following a league-issued decision, there is typi - cally an internal appeals process that is set forth in league-governing documents. This internal appeals process is typically the final adjudica - tory step available at the league level. After an arbitration award is issued, a party seeking to enforce the award should file a petition in federal court to confirm such award within one year of the date the award was issued. As noted in 6.1 National Court System , after exhausting their appeal options at the league level, players or teams may appeal the league’s determination in federal court under a narrow set of circumstanc - es set forth in the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) or under the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA). An appeal sought from an arbitration award in the labour and employment context will result in an appeal under the LMRA. Otherwise, the FAA’s appeal procedures are likely to apply. The standard for vacating an arbitration deci - sion is high and courts are generally deferential to arbitration decisions since the parties agreed to arbitration in lieu of using a court to settle the dispute. Courts will generally uphold the decision unless the arbitrator acted with bias, corruption or fraud, or exceeded their authority under the terms of the CBA. Similarly, under the FAA, a party may seek to vacate an arbitration award where: • the award was procured through corruption, fraud or undue means;
There are cases in which disputes involving leagues or teams may be heard initially in state or federal court. This usually occurs when a liti - gant is not party to the league’s operating agree - ments and is not bound by an arbitration provi - sion contained in those governing documents. 6.2 ADR (Including Arbitration) League constitutions and by-laws typically require that disputes between the league, play - ers, member teams, officials or other internal league stakeholders be resolved through arbi - tration, in many cases before the league com - missioner as arbitrator. MLB One type of arbitration is the “baseball arbitra- tion” , which originates from a methodology that was used to resolve baseball players’ salary dis - putes. In this type of arbitration, each party sub - mits to an arbitrator an amount that represents the party’s last, best offer. The arbitrator then must pick one of the submitted figures. MLB CBA still requires “last, best offer” arbitration. This system usually causes good faith bargain - ing and results in a high percentage of settle - ments. NBA The NBA utilises arbitration to resolve issues per - taining to the CBA. The CBA provides for arbitra - tion of disputes relating to player grievance and selected articles within the CBA. Issues involving income, salary cap, and minimum team salary are subject to arbitration under the CBA. Some disciplinary determinations issued by the NBA commissioner are binding upon the player. If the disciplinary determination meets certain criteria, it may be appealed to a grievance arbitrator for a final determination.
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