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.

Related documents

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