Employment Law This Week®: Sexual Orientation Bias, Religious Discrimination, At-Will Employment Provision, Class Arbitration
On June 23, 2023, in Coinbase, Inc. v. Bielski, the Supreme Court resolved a deeply divided circuit court split and ruled that a district court must stay its proceedings while an interlocutory appeal on the question of...more
In the decade since the Supreme Court decided AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, 563 U.S. 333, 339 (2011) and American Express Co. v. Italian Colors Restaurants, 570 U.S. 228, 233 (2013), arbitrability has become a threshold...more
Arbitration provides a lower-cost alternative to litigation. Yet, a growing predicament continues to penetrate the conversation surrounding arbitration: mass arbitration. On the one hand, no rational customer or employee...more
The United States Supreme Court established that questions of arbitrability are presumptively for a court unless the parties clearly and unmistakability manifest their intention (i.e, agreement) that such issues should be...more
On April 16, 2020, the Fifth Circuit held that an employee is entitled to arbitrate his federal labor law claims as a collective action on behalf of his coworkers against their employer, Sun Coast Resources, Inc. (“Sun...more
The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently articulated a new statutory framework for determining whether notice to a putative plaintiff should be issued under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). At...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: As detailed in our 2020 Workplace Class Action Litigation Report, 2019 was an interesting year for employers in terms of class certification rulings. Plaintiffs achieved the highest numbers of initial...more
In reversing a New York federal court, the Second Circuit found the arbitration was within the arbitrator’s authority in binding absent class members to class proceedings because, by signing the operative arbitration...more
For most small to medium-sized businesses, the threat of a class action is not usually front-of-mind. However, as a business grows, the threat can increase depending on the number of employees and the nature of the work being...more
As this blog has previously discussed, the availability of class arbitration has been significantly restricted after a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions. However, we have also noted that express preclusion of class...more
The U.S. Supreme Court issued two 5-4 decisions in as many months regarding class procedures. Lamp Plus, Inc. v. Varela, 587 U. S. ____ (2019) was favorable to corporate defendants by limiting the availability of class...more
In 2019, significant developments are expected on issues that have been percolating in the mass tort and class action litigation arena for several years. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on cases relating to...more
Takeaway: As we explored in a prior post (“Class arbitration – can it even work?”), conducting a class arbitration like most class actions – that is, giving absent class members notice and an opportunity to opt-out – may not...more
The U.S. Supreme Court has pointed out consistently in recent years that the relatively new construct of “class arbitration” is very different from your uncle’s classic bilateral arbitration. (“Class arbitration” signifies...more
As the U.S. Supreme Court kicks off its 2018 term this week, it prepares to take up a series of firsts, including questions about the America Invents Act, securities fraud and privacy-related class action litigation. At the...more
In a matter of first impression before the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and an issue left open by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Eleventh Circuit has ruled that who decides whether an action can be litigated as a class in...more
In a series of articles over the past several months, we asked whether “class arbitration” — meaning the utilization of the Fed.R.Civ.P. 23 class action protocol in an arbitration proceeding — is ultimately viable in U.S....more
After an employer allegedly released personally identifiable information of its employees as the result of a phishing scam, plaintiff employee filed a putative class action lawsuit, alleging claims including negligence,...more
When is “silence” in an arbitration clause concerning class arbitration not “Stolt-Nielsen silence”? And what is the difference between a “claim” and a “procedure”? The Ninth Circuit seemingly took hair-splitting to a new...more
“Class arbitration” — the utilization of a class action mechanism in an arbitration proceeding — is considered by some to be the unicorn of ADR; desirable but elusive. Another view is that it is the Frankenstein’s monster of...more
Last week, the CFPB announced two proposals related to the inclusion clauses that require arbitration to resolve all future disputes (“pre-dispute arbitration agreements”) in consumer financial products. The first proposal...more
An administrative law judge for the National Labor Relations Board (“Board”) found in favor of Talina Torres (“Torres”) against Employers Resource (“Employers”) after determining that an arbitration clause within an...more
The Supreme Court’s October 2012 Term could rightly be named “The Year of the Class Action.” The High Court received many petitions for review and ultimately issued more than five decisions that tackled issues impacting the...more
Originally published in the Journal of the American College of Construction Lawyers Volume 7, Number 1, in Winter of 2013. There are certain indisputable benets of commercial arbitration: knowledgeable trier of fact,...more