We previously wrote about a Ninth Circuit appeal dealing with the use of bellwether procedures to resolve mass arbitration claims brought by thousands of customers against Verizon Wireless. That appeal remains pending and is...more
Morgan v. Sundance, Inc., No. 21-328: Does the arbitration-specific requirement that the proponent of a contractual waiver defense prove prejudice violate this Court’s instruction in AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, 563 U.S....more
After denying the defendants’ petitions for panel and en banc rehearing in the Blair v. Rent-a-Center appeals, the Ninth Circuit has granted their motions to stay the issuance of the Court’s mandates for 90 days pending the...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: The second key trend from our 16th Annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report involves rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court. Over the past few years, the Supreme Court has issued a number of rulings that...more
On June 28, 2019, the Ninth Circuit held in three separate cases that the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) does not preempt the California Supreme Court’s holding in McGill v. Citibank, N.A., 2 Cal.5th 945 (2017) — otherwise...more
The Supreme Court, in a sharply-divided 5-4 ruling issued on April 24, ruled that nothing in the Federal Arbitration Act allows courts to compel class action arbitration even if the contract is ambiguous in that regard, and...more
In an important ruling that further narrows the circumstances in which class arbitration will be permitted, the Supreme Court today held that under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA)...more
In a widely anticipated decision, the United States Supreme Court issued a 5-4 decision today in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis; Ernst & Young LLP v. Morris; and National Labor Relations Board v. Murphy Oil USA, Inc., upholding...more
Welcome news for many employers rolled out of Washington, D.C. earlier this morning. The Supreme Court has ended a long-running debate over the enforceability of arbitration agreements with class action waivers in the...more
Assuming Judge Gorsuch's confirmation, the Court will add a Justice with extensive commercial litigation experience, a particular expertise in antitrust and securities law, and a track record on the bench that demonstrates a...more
Q: Why has the Supreme Court of the United States taken more cases involving disputes over arbitration over the past decade or so and what does it mean for the insurance and reinsurance industry? Arbitration law used to...more
As we reported last year, in October 2015 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau published an outline of proposals that would limit the use of arbitration provisions in contracts for consumer financial products. On May 5,...more
There is no doubt that the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia will have major repercussions on Supreme Court jurisprudence. A 30-year veteran of the Court, Justice Scalia was known for his originalist positions and...more
The Restoring Statutory Rights Act of 2016, sponsored by Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, was sent to congressional committee on February 4, 2016 for consideration. The bill would place restrictions on companies’ use...more
Over the last decade, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a string of opinions with profound implications for the enforceability of arbitration provisions and class action waivers in consumer contracts. These decisions, the most...more
The sudden death of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States, who served on the Court for over 30 years, has touched off a heated political debate over the appointment and consideration of...more
On February 13, 2016, Justice Antonin Scalia, the anchor of the Court’s conservative wing for nearly three decades, passed away. He leaves behind a distinguished legal career that involved experience in wide range of roles....more
The late Justice Antonin Scalia was not the biggest fan of antitrust law. As he famously quipped during his Senate confirmation hearing: “In law school, I never understood [antitrust law]. I later found out, in reading the...more
There seems to be no end in sight to the standoff between the National Labor Relations Board and at least a majority of the federal courts over the legality of arbitration agreements that require employees to waive the right...more
No one has done more to shape class action law than Justice Antonin Scalia. His unexpected passing yesterday, even while important class action cases remain under advisement, will spark a renewed push to tilt class action...more
In 2014, we blogged about a California state appellate court decision invalidating the arbitration clause in DIRECTV’s consumer contracts. We found that California decision to be noteworthy because it seemed to fly in the...more
On December 14, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court applied its landmark Concepcion decision and reversed a California appellate court’s ruling that an arbitration clause containing a class arbitration waiver was unenforceable under...more
The United States Supreme Court recently reversed a decision by the California Court of Appeal wherein the state court refused to enforce a class action waiver in an arbitration agreement. The Supreme Court enforced the class...more
On December 14, 2015, the United States Supreme Court in DIRECTV, Inc. v. Imburgia, 577 U.S. ___, No. 14-462, slip op. at 1 (Dec. 14, 2015), doubled down on its previous holdings that the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”)...more
Facing yet another issue involving the arbitration of consumer disputes, the United States Supreme Court on December 14, 2015 held that a class action waiver clause was valid even when the contract incorporated state law...more