Document type: Checklist Practice area: Litigation—Arbitration Jurisdiction: United States (federal) Last reviewed: 5 September 2026

Use this the day the award arrives. The three-month clock in 9 U.S.C. § 12 starts on delivery, and the most common way a viable challenge dies is that nobody started counting.

Part 1—Day one

  • Record the exact date the award was filed or delivered, and how.
  • Save the award, the transmittal, and the delivery metadata.
  • Identify the applicable institutional rules and pull the post-award provisions.
  • Identify the seat of the arbitration named in the agreement.
  • Determine whether the award falls under the New York Convention—9 U.S.C. § 202 reaches awards not entirely between U.S. citizens, and awards between U.S. citizens with a reasonable relation to a foreign state.
  • Circulate a one-paragraph summary to the client with the deadlines.

Calendar all six of these now:

  • Institutional correction / interpretation / completion deadline (typically 20–30 days).
  • § 12 vacatur service deadline—three months.
  • § 9 confirmation deadline—one year (domestic).
  • § 207 confirmation deadline—three years (Convention).
  • Arbitral appellate deadline, if the clause adopts an appellate procedure.
  • Any payment date stated in the award.

Part 2—The three reads

Read one—what was decided.

  • Build a claim-by-claim table: claim, party, disposition, relief.
  • Confirm the award states amounts, payees, and payment terms unambiguously.
  • Confirm it addresses interest—pre-award, post-award, rate, accrual date.
  • Confirm it addresses fees, costs, and the arbitrator's compensation.
  • Note whether it is styled interim, partial, or final.

Read two—what was not decided.

  • Compare the award against the demand, answer, counterclaims, and any agreed statement of issues.
  • Identify any submitted claim the award does not address.
  • Identify any submitted defense the award does not address.
  • If something is missing, prepare a completion request under the institutional rules immediately—the window is short.

Read three—how it was reasoned.

  • Does the award quote or cite the agreement?
  • Does it engage the parties' competing readings?
  • Does it cite governing law?
  • Does it decide anything on a theory neither party presented?

If the award quotes the contract and explains a reading of it, a § 10(a)(4) challenge is very unlikely to succeed. Under Oxford Health Plans LLC v. Sutter, 569 U.S. 564 (2013), the sole question is whether the arbitrator even arguably interpreted the contract.

Part 3—Vacatur grounds, in order of viability

Evident partiality—§ 10(a)(2)

  • Pull the arbitrator's original disclosure statement and every supplement.
  • Re-run conflicts now: the arbitrator's firm, other appointments, board seats, publications, speaking engagements.
  • Search the client's own vendor, customer, and litigation records for the arbitrator's name and firm.
  • Identify any relationship that arose during the arbitration.
  • Assess materiality: ongoing versus concluded, substantial versus trivial, related versus unrelated to the parties or the subject matter.
  • Ask whether your client knew and stayed silent. If yes, the ground is almost certainly waived.
  • If viable, plan the evidentiary record: declarations, exhibits, public filings, and a possible request for narrow discovery.

Exceeded powers—§ 10(a)(4)

  • Did the arbitrator decide a claim not submitted?
  • Did the arbitrator award relief the clause forbids—and is the prohibition phrased as a limit on authority or as a substantive term?
  • Did the arbitrator resolve a question the parties expressly reserved to a court?
  • Did the arbitrator reason from policy rather than the agreement, as in Stolt-Nielsen S.A. v. AnimalFeeds International Corp., 559 U.S. 662 (2010)?
  • Is the award "mutual, final, and definite upon the subject matter submitted"?
  • Confirm you are not simply arguing the arbitrator was wrong. If you are, stop.

Misconduct—§ 10(a)(3)

  • Was an entire category of pertinent and material evidence refused?
  • Was a postponement denied despite sufficient cause shown?
  • Were there ex parte communications on the merits?
  • Did the panel rely on material outside the record without notice?
  • Was the objection preserved on the record at the time?
  • Confirm the complaint is about fundamental fairness, not about the scope of discovery or the weight of evidence.

Corruption, fraud, or undue means—§ 10(a)(1)

  • Is there clear and convincing evidence of fraud?
  • Was it undiscoverable through reasonable diligence during the arbitration?
  • Did it materially relate to an issue in the arbitration?

Manifest disregard

Part 4—Modification and correction

Under § 11, a court may modify or correct where:

  • There is an evident material miscalculation of figures or mistake in a description.
  • The arbitrator awarded on a matter not submitted, if severable without affecting the merits.
  • The award is imperfect in form without affecting the merits.

Before going to court:

  • Use the institutional correction procedure first—it is faster and cheaper.
  • Confirm the institutional deadline has not run.
  • Calendar the § 12 date anyway, in case the panel declines.
  • Understand the functus officio limits: the arbitrator may correct clerical errors, complete an omitted submitted claim, and clarify genuine ambiguity—not reconsider the merits.

Part 5—The decision

  • Assign a candid probability to the strongest ground.
  • Price the motion through decision, including any evidentiary hearing.
  • Compute interest accruing during the challenge period.
  • Identify what a rehearing under § 10(b) would cost and whether you want one.
  • Assess precedential risk across the client's other contracts with the same clause.
  • Consider whether a negotiated resolution using the award as a baseline is better.
  • Get a written client decision, with the analysis attached.

Part 6—Filing the vacatur motion

  • File as a motion, not a complaint—§ 6 requires it.
  • Confirm the court has subject matter jurisdiction (see Part 7).
  • File in the district where the award was made, or as the agreement designates.
  • Attach the record required by § 13: the agreement, the award, and every paper used.
  • Lead the brief with the statutory ground, not with the arbitrator's error.
  • Keep merits discussion strictly in service of the ground.
  • Specify the remedy: full rehearing, limited remand, same panel or new arbitrator under § 5.
  • Serve within three months of delivery, and prove service.
  • Anticipate the cross-motion to confirm.

Part 7—Jurisdiction (both sides must do this)

Badgerow v. Walters, 596 U.S. 1 (2022) forecloses look-through jurisdiction for §§ 9 and 10 petitions. Vaden v. Discover Bank, 556 U.S. 49 (2009) permits it only for § 4 petitions to compel.

  • Is there an open federal action in which arbitration was compelled and stayed? If so, move there.
  • Is there complete diversity, with an award exceeding $75,000, under § 1332?
  • Is it a Convention award? § 203 confers original federal jurisdiction; § 205 permits removal.
  • If none of the above, file in state court.
  • Do not rely on federal question jurisdiction drawn from the underlying dispute.
  • Confirm venue and personal jurisdiction independently.

Part 8—Confirmation

  • File promptly; do not treat the one-year period as a target.
  • File as a motion with a supporting declaration.
  • Attach the agreement, the award, and proof of delivery.
  • Identify the provision authorizing entry of judgment—in the agreement or supplied by the adopted institutional rules.
  • State in the opening paragraph that § 9 requires the court to grant confirmation absent a § 10 or § 11 ground.
  • Address any timely vacatur motion.
  • Submit a proposed judgment specifying principal, interest, fees, costs, and the accrual date.
  • Confirm whether the contractual or award interest rate exceeds the 28 U.S.C. § 1961 federal judgment rate before converting the award into a judgment.

Part 9—Collection

  • Docket the judgment; obtain certified copies.
  • Register in every district with debtor assets under 28 U.S.C. § 1963.
  • Domesticate in relevant states.
  • Record judgment liens where real property sits.
  • Serve post-judgment interrogatories and document requests.
  • Take a debtor examination early—this is the highest-yield step.
  • Identify bank accounts, receivables, equipment, and equity interests.
  • Issue writs of execution and garnishment.
  • Seek charging orders against LLC and partnership interests.
  • Investigate transfers made after the demand was filed; evaluate voidable transaction claims.
  • Track the debtor's solvency and any bankruptcy risk; a petition stays everything and exposes recent payments to preference recovery.

Part 10—Special situations

Convention awards.

  • Apply Article V defenses, not § 10.
  • Use the three-year period under § 207.
  • If the award was made abroad and set aside at the seat, get specialist advice.
  • Coordinate with counsel in each enforcement jurisdiction before confirming here.

Partial and interim awards.

  • Determine whether the award finally disposes of a discrete, independent claim.
  • Check the circuit's rule on whether a challenge must be brought within three months of the partial award.
  • Do not assume rulings in a partial award are preserved for a challenge to the final award.

Insolvent debtor.

  • Confirm and register before any bankruptcy petition.
  • Take the debtor examination immediately.
  • Assess preference exposure on any payment received.

Foreign or sovereign debtor.

  • Identify where the assets are and enforce there.
  • For a foreign state or instrumentality, analyze immunity and attachment under the FSIA with specialist input.

Part 11—Appeals

Under § 16:

  • Confirm whether the order is immediately appealable—orders denying confirmation, vacating an award without a rehearing, denying a stay, or denying a petition to compel generally are.
  • Confirm whether it is not—orders granting a stay or compelling arbitration generally require § 1292(b) certification.
  • Calendar the appeal deadline from entry of the appealable order.
  • Assess the standard: de novo on law, clear error on facts, layered on top of extraordinary deference to the arbitrator.

Part 12—The drafting debrief

Do this within thirty days, while the matter is fresh.

  • Rewrite damages limitations as limits on the arbitrator's authority.
  • Specify the award form—reasoned, or findings and conclusions.
  • Add the judgment-entry sentence.
  • Designate a confirmation court that will have jurisdiction after Badgerow.
  • Set concrete, continuing disclosure obligations with a lookback period and an objection deadline.
  • Decide whether to adopt an arbitral appellate procedure.
  • Specify pre-award and post-award interest rates.
  • Specify fee-shifting authority and standard.
  • Name a legal seat, not merely a hearing location.
  • Circulate the revised clause to the transactional team.

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This checklist is general information, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship.