Contract Lawyer Austin Texas

The Oklahoma Supreme Court's decision disregards this Court's precedents on the FAA. [Federal Arbitration Act] That Act, which "declare[s] a national policy favoring arbitration," provides that a "written provision in . . . a contract evidencing a transaction involving commerce to settle by arbitration a controversy thereafter arising out of such contract or transaction . . . shall be valid, irrevocable, and enforceable, save upon such grounds as exist at law or in equity for the revocation of any contract." 9 U. S. C. §2. It is well settled that "the substantive law the Act created [is] applicable in state and federal courts." And when parties commit to arbitrate contractual disputes, it is a mainstay of the Act's substantive law that attacks on the validity of the contract, as distinct from attacks on the validity of the arbitration clause itself, are to be resolved "by the arbitrator in the first instance, not by a federal or state court." For these purposes, an "arbitration provision is severable from the remainder of the contract," and its validity is subject to initial court determination; but the validity of the remainder of the contract (if the arbitration provision is valid) is for the arbitrator to decide.