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While recognizing the heavy weight of the presumption in favor of arbitration, a Louisiana Appellate Court found an attorney-client arbitration agreement to be an unconscionable adhesion contract, and therefore unenforceable.
In Lafleur v. Law Offices of Anthony G. Buzbee, P.C., No. 2006 CA 0466, 2007 WL 858859 (La. Ct. App. Mar. 23, 2007), Lafleur sued his attorneys for malpractice, primarily for negotiating an inadequate settlement without proper authority. Buzbee settled after the appeal was filed, but co-defendant Sterns did not, and Sterns moved to enforce the arbitration agreement Lafleur had signed with his firm.
The Court refused to do so, noting that the terms of the agreement were "unduly burdensome" on Lafleur – both by binding only Lafleur, not Sterns, to arbitrate any dispute, and by imposing all expenses upon Lefleur regardless of the outcome. The contract therefore lacked the requisite consent needed to enforce the arbitration provision.
Holding the arbitration agreement to be an unenforceable adhesion contract, the Court also emphasized that the agreement was part of a standard form contract, drafted by Sterns, who had much greater bargaining power than Lafleur.
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