California Employment News: The State of Mandatory Arbitration Agreements in California Employment
Podcast: California Employment News - The State of Mandatory Arbitration Agreements in California Employment
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Arbitration Clauses in Employee Contracts and Beyond
It is generally understood, or at least it has been in the past, that plaintiffs prefer to avoid the application of the Federal Arbitration Act (the “FAA”) and instead present their cases to juries. As such, plaintiffs have...more
The United States Senate Judiciary Committee, with bipartisan support, has advanced the Protecting Older Americans Act Bill. The bill, which was introduced by Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., heads to...more
Arbitration agreements are useful tools for California employers, but they are replete with potential dangers. An employer contemplating using arbitration in the workplace must evaluate whether it should be mandatory, the...more
The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument on Feb. 20, 2024, on whether food distributors are exempt from arbitration under Section 1 of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), governing "contracts of employment of seamen,...more
Arbitration agreements are a powerful tool used by many employers to compel the utilization of arbitration as a means of alternative dispute resolution. Arbitration allows the parties of a claim to resolve the dispute...more
In Munoz, v. Earthgrains Distribution, LLC, 2023 WL 5986129 (S.D. Cal. Sept. 13, 2023), the plaintiffs, members of a class of independent distributors of baked goods for Earthgrains and other bakeries, alleged that they were...more
Employers should be concerned that just this week, Democratic lawmakers (Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Rep. Colin Allred of Texas) outlined legislation that would ban the arbitration of claims involving race...more
The Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021 (the “EFAA”) has been law for just over a year. The bill was signed by President Biden on March 3, 2022, and amended the Federal Arbitration...more
Once again, the California legislature's attempt to kneecap arbitration agreements in the employment arena has been swept aside by a federal court. As of February 15, 2023, California employers may continue to require...more
On February 24, 2023 the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York held that a former employee’s arbitration agreement with his former employer was unenforceable under the Ending Forced Arbitration of...more
As of February 15, 2023, employers in California may once again require mandatory arbitration as the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) preempts Assembly Bill 51 (AB 51), a...more
On February 15, 2023, a split 9th Circuit panel held that California's ban on mandatory arbitration agreements is preempted by federal law. This closely watched decision allows employers to require employees to enter into...more
Avid readers of Stokes Wagner’s legal updates may be familiar with California’s Assembly Bill 51, a law that, until very recently, prohibited California employers from requiring employees or job applicants to sign arbitration...more
On February 15, 2023, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued its decision in Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America, et al. v. Bonta, et al. In this decision, the Ninth Circuit found...more
California’s attempt to limit mandatory arbitration agreements as a condition of employment has been held to violate Federal law, according to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals....more
The Ninth Circuit gave California employers a belated Valentine’s Day present by upholding the District Court’s injunction against enforcement of California Assembly Bill 51 (“AB 51”) because it inhibited arbitration contrary...more
On February 15, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in Chamber of Commerce v. Bonta that California’s Assembly Bill 51 (“AB 51”) is preempted by the Federal Arbitration Act. After two failed attempts...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: A divided Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel has ruled that the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) preempts California Assembly Bill 51 (AB 51), which purports to prohibit employers from requiring job...more
The Ninth Circuit has issued its long-awaited ruling in Chamber of Commerce v. Bonta, perhaps putting a nail in the coffin of the controversial California law known as AB 51, which would have made it criminal conduct to...more
On Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed itself in a 2-to-1 opinion and largely struck down a California law that would have prohibited employers from imposing binding arbitration of employment...more
The panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that largely upheld California’s law banning mandatory arbitration agreements in the employment context just withdrew its decision. On August 22, 2022, two of the three...more
In Mankin Media Systems, Inv. v. Timothy Crowder, No. 19CV-48300W (Jun. 30, 2022), the Court of Appeals of Tennessee reversed the confirmation of an arbitration award because the so-called arbitration clause appeared in the...more
If you have an arbitration agreement, do you have to compel arbitration when the lawsuit is filed or can you wait awhile? This week, the Supreme Court concluded that a party litigating in federal court cannot later compel...more
On March 3, 2022, President Biden signed into law the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021 (the “Act”), prohibiting employers from enforcing predispute arbitration agreements and class...more
The Supreme Court has recently taken the challenge of assessing the scope and breadth of workplace arbitration provisions under the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) in Viking River Cruises, Inc. v. Moriana, and Southwest...more