Patent Infringement: Successful Litigation Stays the "Course"
Evenskaas v. California Transit Inc. reversed a Los Angeles Superior Court judge’s denial of an employer’s motion to compel arbitration of a former employee’s wage and hour class action. The trial court had concluded that the...more
On July 8, 2022, in Gist v. ZoAn Management, Inc., the Oregon Supreme Court affirmed the decisions of the trial court and court of appeals granting the defendants’ motion to compel arbitration. The court concluded that...more
When can you compel arbitration of a putative class action? The law is developing quickly and still doesn’t provide a crystal clear answer. The Ninth Circuit recently weighed in on two cases examining what happens when the...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: The data and analysis from workplace class action rulings, case filings, and settlements showed that change is the new normal in 2020-2021. As many pro-business precedents continued to roll out and take...more
Barriga v. 99 Cents Only Stores LLC, 2020 WL 3481717 (Cal. Ct. App. 2020) - Sofia Wilton Barriga filed this lawsuit against her employer, 99 Cents Only, alleging that the “zero-tolerance” policy requiring its stores to...more
Many employers strongly prefer arbitration to litigating with their employees in court. Employers often believe—and the Supreme Court has agreed—that arbitration of employment disputes has many benefits, including potential...more
In our previous blog we wrote about California’s Assembly Bill 51, which largely impacts arbitration agreements by prohibiting employers from requiring employees or applicants for employment to agree to arbitrate claims for...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: In a must-read decision and case of first impression at the federal appellate level, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held late last week that a district court may not approve sending notice of an FLSA...more
Last week, employees received a rare victory that punches a sizable hole in previous laws that supported allowing arbitration in place of litigation. Recently, a unanimous Supreme Court determined that the regulation does not...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: The Ninth Circuit, following the Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, has upheld the validity of class-action waivers in Uber’s arbitration agreement, and has held that a named...more
On the heels of the Supreme Court’s decision earlier this year in Epic Systems Corporation v. Lewis, which held that the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) does not bar class or collective action waivers in arbitration...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: In an important decision for employers seeking to enforce arbitration agreements and limit wage and hour exposure and related defense costs, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reaffirmed that...more
In Lawson v. ZB, N.A. (2018) 18 Cal.App.5th 705, California’s Fourth District Court of Appeal recently ruled that the two elements comprising damages under Labor Code § 558 – (a) underpaid wages and (b) denominated...more
In Kim v. Reins International California, Inc. (B278642, Cal. Ct. App., December 29, 2017), the Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District addressed for the first time the question of whether an employee-plaintiff, who...more
There were no notable settlements in independent contractor misclassification class action cases that came to our attention last month, but there was an array of significant IC cases in various stages of litigation. Two of...more
Arbitration - Sprunk v. Prisma LLC, No. B268755, 2017 WL 3614265 (Cal. Ct. App. Aug. 23, 2017) - Summary: Employer waived right to compel arbitration against class members by not timely pursuing arbitration. ...more
California defendants in class actions should be wary of seeking a strategic advantage by litigating before seeking to compel arbitration. The Court of Appeal held recently in Sprunk v. Prisma LLC that a defendant in class...more
This month’s key California employment law cases involve wage and hour (payment of wages) and civil procedure (class and representative actions). Wage and Hour - Payment of Wages: Minnick v. Auto. Creations, Inc., 2017 WL...more
In a unanimous decision, the California Supreme Court ruled today that plaintiffs in lawsuits brought pursuant to the California Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA), can seek the contact information for their fellow...more
In response to three questions asked of it by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the California Supreme Court opined as follows...more
Four of the eight court cases we report on below in our February 2017 monthly update of IC misclassification cases involve Uber, and each of those cases were victories for the ride-sharing, on-demand company. Although none of...more
Arbitrator or Judge? California Supreme Court Weighs in - Why it matters - Yet again, the California Supreme Court considered arbitration in the context of an employment agreement, this time reflecting on whether a...more
Four of the five independent contractor (IC) misclassification cases reported below from July 2016 illustrate how companies continue to fail to structure, document, and implement a business’s IC relationships in a manner that...more
The Seventh Circuit recently became the first federal appellate court to say that employers can’t prevent class/collective actions through waivers in mandatory arbitration agreements, holding that such waivers interfere with...more
Some may have thought that once waived, the right to arbitrate is gone forever. No so! The Eleventh Circuit decision in Collado v. J & G Transport, Inc., No. 15-14635 (11th Cir. April 21, 2016) is but the latest example. In...more