Who Pays for Mediation?
Since its enactment, California courts have universally established the California Code of Civil Procedure section 1281.97 et seq., which governs the timely payment of fees in arbitration, allows no room for error....more
The FAA preempts California’s Code of Civil Procedure section 1281.97, which requires employers to pay arbitration fees within 30 days of the due date or return the case to court, a state appellate panel has ruled....more
In recent years, plaintiff-side attorneys have increasingly relied on a strategy of “mass arbitration” to force companies into in terrorem settlements, whereby large numbers of claims are settled quickly before the underlying...more
Arbitration agreement enforcement continues to take up California court space. Recently, a wave of cases highlights for restaurant and food service industry and other employers the importance of timely payment of arbitrator...more
In 2019, California enacted Senate (SB) Bill 707, a law codified as California Code of Civil Procedure sections 1281.98 and 1281.99, that automatically deems an employer’s failure to pay fees required for the commencement or...more
Hohenshelt v. Superior Court, 318 Cal. Rptr. 3d 475 (Cal. Ct. App. 2024) - For the seventh time since they became effective in 2020, the California Court of Appeal has published an opinion holding that Cal. Code Civ. Proc....more
The California Court of Appeals recently revisited the issue of the draconian deadline for paying arbitration fees established by California Code of Civil Procedure section 1281.97. In Suarez v. Superior Court of San Diego...more
A recent complaint against plaintiffs’ firm Zimmerman Reed directly challenges the law firm’s mass arbitration tactics and alleged “weaponization” of a California privacy statute. The complaint comes as arbitration...more
The American Arbitration Association (AAA) has amended its Mass Arbitration Supplementary Rules and fee schedules applicable to certain consumer and employment arbitrations, effective January 15, 2024. The AAA announced that...more
We previously blogged about an Illinois federal district court order requiring Samsung to pay about $4 million in arbitration fees in connection with 35,000 individual arbitration demands filed as part of a “mass...more
California employers should be extremely cautious about timely paying arbitration fees or could pay the price – waiving their right to arbitrate and having to proceed in court....more
You’ve taken the right steps. You prepared and rolled out an enforceable arbitration agreement to your employees. Not surprisingly in California, you were sued. The Plaintiff, by force or voluntarily, agreed to arbitrate. You...more
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois is the latest court to require a company to pay millions of dollars in fees to adjudicate mass arbitrations. Judge Harry D. Leinenweber compelled Samsung...more
Imagine arriving at the office to find 20 bankers' boxes full of 20,000+ individual arbitration demands. The claims appear identical and non-meritorious. But to even get a chance to make an argument, it will cost you nearly...more
Many California employers and their counsel remain blissfully ignorant of the latest “gotcha” law in California, which can easily derail an otherwise perfectly planned arbitration. Back in 2019, the California legislature,...more
Since its enactment in 2020, employers have been forced to be mindful of the burdensome imposition of Code of Civil Procedure section 1281.97 et seq., which requires an employer to pay the full amount of arbitration fees...more
Providing an expensive lesson, a California appellate court held that an employer’s failure to timely pay an arbitration fee resulted in a waiver of the employer’s right to require arbitration....more
The Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court just issued the latest significant ruling in the mass arbitration space, a litigation trend that has been gaining notoriety over the last year and a half....more
While the FINRA arbitration system certainly is not perfect – just see Alan’s troubling blog from last week regarding the Motion to Vacate that was granted by a Judge in Atlanta – we like to think that when cases go to...more
The California Legislature has enacted several new laws that will impact the workplace in 2022. This Holland & Knight alert provides a brief summary of select employment laws that went into effect on Jan. 1, 2022, unless...more
In the spirit of the season, we are using our annual "12 days of the holidays" blog series to address new California laws and their impact on California employers. On this second day of the holidays, my labor and employment...more
In response to the increased use and enforcement of class and collective action waivers, plaintiffs’ attorneys are now relying on a new strategy to gain leverage over businesses. More specifically, they have started to...more
Commercial litigation and real estate attorney Thomas Moring explains who is responsible for the fees associated with mediation....more
Be careful what you ask for. We have used that expression frequently when writing about recent federal court orders requiring DoorDash and Postmates to conduct thousands of individual arbitrations in California pursuant to...more
Recently, we wrote here about a federal court order requiring DoorDash to conduct more than 5,000 individual arbitrations under the terms of its mandatory arbitration agreements, with each arbitration to address claims that...more