There are times when one would rather not be proven right. Nearly four years ago, a California district court invalidated AB 51, which sought to prohibit mandatory arbitration by, among other things, calling for criminal...more
1/10/2024
/ Arbitration ,
Chamber of Commerce ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Litigation ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Mandatory Arbitration ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
Preemption ,
State Labor Laws ,
Unenforceable Contract Terms ,
Viking River Cruises Inc v Moriana
Court also holds that arbitrability questions must be resolved by the arbitrator -
The 10th Circuit has decided two significant issues in an otherwise garden-variety off-the-clock case, one relating to arbitration and the...more
11/7/2023
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employment Litigation ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
FRCP 23 ,
Reversal ,
Unpaid Overtime
While several recent Supreme Court decisions have garnered significant headlines, the Court’s late June ruling in Coinbase, Inc. v. Bielski, (Case No. 22-15), likely flew under the radar for the national media outlets. For...more
In a much-anticipated opinion, the Supreme Court unanimously held that a party claiming waiver of the right to arbitrate need not show prejudice, in Morgan v. Sundance, Inc., Case No. 21-328 (May 23, 2022). While the holding...more
For many years, state and federal courts in California have opposed arbitration and have manufactured frameworks under which they become unenforceable despite the clear directives of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) and...more
Following the United States Supreme Court’s decision three years ago in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, courts have increasingly enforced arbitration agreements with class action waivers. We blogged about the Epic Systems...more
Two Centuries of Federal Precedent Given Effect -
We’ve blogged several times the ongoing saga involving AB 51, California’s attempt to prevent the mandatory arbitration of employment claims largely by sanctioning...more
A federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order halting the enforcement of Assembly Bill 51, California’s latest attempt to prevent arbitration of claims brought under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act....more
But Do You Really Want To In All Cases?
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) was the largest statute ever passed by Congress at the time it was enacted and has only grown further since then. ...more
More games of cat and mouse -
Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, 138 S. Ct. 1632 (2018), plaintiffs have tried to come up with strategies to address the impact of arbitration agreements...more
On Jan. 8, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision regarding an important procedural issue under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). In Henry Schein, Inc. v. Archer & White Sales, Inc., No. 17-1272, it held...more
1/11/2019
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Arbitrators ,
Contract Terms ,
Exceptions ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Henry Schein Inc v Archer and White Sales Inc ,
Judicial Review ,
Motion to Compel ,
Question of Arbitrability ,
Remand ,
SCOTUS ,
Vacated ,
Wholly Groundless Doctrine
“Well, They Gave Me the Agreement in My Own Language, but I Still Didn’t Understand the English Version” doesn’t work.
The Federal Arbitration Act will turn 100 in the next few years, but despite more than nine decades of...more
With the Epic Systems case broadly supporting employers’ rights to use arbitration agreements with class waivers, what is now emerging is the result of the necessary trade-off....more
No shocking outcome here. In Gaffers v. Kelly Services, Inc., Case No. 16-2210 (6th Cir. Aug. 15, 2016), the Sixth Circuit held that the Supreme Court’s decision in Epic Systems v. Lewis, 138 S. Ct. 1632 (2018) applies to...more
But decision leaves open many questions . . .
With the Supreme Court’s Epic Systems decision laying to rest many of the primary arguments used to avoid arbitration, case law continues to develop regarding how arbitration...more
The controversy surrounding the validity of employment arbitration agreements with class action waivers has been simmering at least since 2012. Now, with the Supreme Court’s decision in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, we have an...more
My working title for this blog was “collective action grab bag,” concerning the recent Sixth Circuit case in Killion v. KeHE Distributors, LLC, Case Nos. 12-3357/4340 (6th Cir. July 31, 2014). I went with the title that...more
8/11/2014
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Interlocutory Appeals ,
Jurisdiction ,
Retailers ,
Unpaid Overtime ,
Wage and Hour
Alright, we all know in the wake of Italian Colors, Concepcion, and now many other cases that the presumption of arbitrability isn’t just a doctrine to recite in the manner of saying grace before invalidating an agreement,...more
The British have a phrase “too clever by half” to describe complex schemes that ultimately won’t work.
We all know from cases such as Concepcion, Stolt-Nielsen, Italian Colors, and their progeny that arbitration...more
With the Supreme Court having issued a series of decisions overruling many of the roadblocks to the enforcement of arbitration agreements in the class context, we are now seeing more courts fill in the gaps as to whether and...more
In 1991, Sega introduced the video character Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic became insanely popular, spawning several generations of videogames that are still being designed and sold today, comic books, and even a short-lived...more
Dorothy Gale famously remarked upon finding herself in Oz “Toto, I’ve got a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” Class action wage and hour plaintiffs on the west coast are now awakening to the fact that while they may still...more
7/12/2013
/ American Express ,
American Express v Italian Colors Restaurant ,
Arbitration ,
AT&T Mobility v Concepcion ,
Class Action ,
Collective Actions ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Ernst & Young ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
NLRB ,
SCOTUS ,
Wage and Hour
A recent decision from a California court of appeals reflects a growing, if at times reluctant, acceptance by California courts of employment arbitration. In Outland v. Macy’s Department Stores, Inc., Case No. A133589 (Ct....more
1/31/2013
/ Arbitration ,
AT&T Mobility ,
Class Action ,
D.R. Horton ,
D.R. Horton v NLRB ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Gentry ,
Macy's ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Over-Time ,
Preemption ,
Rest and Meal Break
Much like a war where each side steadily amasses victories and defeats, the federal courts and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) continue to have diverging opinions on the enforceability of class action waivers in...more
Decades ago, Congress passed the Federal Arbitration Act to combat the hostility courts showed towards arbitration agreements. Since that time, the Supreme Court has repeatedly pronounced the public policy in favor of the...more
12/17/2012
/ American Express ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
AT&T Mobility ,
Class Action ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Nitro-Lift Technologies ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Oxford Health ,
Split of Authority ,
UBS