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
On the 100th anniversary of the Federal Arbitration Act, it is worth recalling that the law was enacted in 1925 in response to what the U.S. Supreme Court later called, in its 2011 opinion in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion,...more
The Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021 (“EFAA”) amended the Federal Arbitration Act to prohibit mandatory arbitration of sexual harassment and sexual assault claims. In Doe v. Second...more
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 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
Hop into the time machine with me so I can take a quick victory lap before I revert to being the ever-cautious counselor. Way back in October 2019, I not-so-subtly indicated my belief that a California statute banning...more
For the second time in as many years, the Supreme Court of the United States has agreed to hear an appeal from a prominent cryptocurrency exchange regarding the enforceability of its arbitration clause in the exchange’s user...more
In a much-anticipated decision, the California Supreme Court in Adolph v. Uber Technologies unanimously held that a plaintiff, compelled to arbitrate individual claims under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA), does not...more
In another reversal of course, the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals cleared the way again for California employers to require arbitration agreements. The latest 2-1 decision in Chamber of Commerce v. Bonta, issued on...more
As litigation costs continue to explode, more and more businesses have been including arbitration clauses in contracts with employees and customers. These clauses, which frequently include class action waivers, allow...more
In a recently issued 8 to 1 Decision in Viking River Cruises, Inc. v. Moriana, the United States Supreme Court held that individual claims based on the “only in California” Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) may be...more
In March 2022, we reported on landmark legislation that paved a clearer path for individuals to pursue workplace sexual harassment and sexual assault claims in court. The Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual...more
Although federal courts in the US generally give deference to arbitration agreements, consistent with the mandate of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), bankruptcy courts often utilise an exception contained in the FAA and...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
In a unanimous decision authored by Justice Elena Kagan, the US Supreme Court ruled that in determining whether a party has waived its right to enforce an arbitration agreement, the party asserting waiver does not have to...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
Since the California Supreme Court’s ruling in Iskanian v. CLS Transportation Los Angeles, LLC in 2014, it has been widely understood that Private Attorneys’ General Act (“PAGA”) actions cannot be subject to employment...more
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Viking River Cruises, Inc. v. Moriana, Case No. 20-1573. Wage and hour practitioners, particularly in California, have watched the case with keen interest because it...more
The U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary held hearings this week on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Republican senators focused on Judge...more
President Joe Biden delivered his first State of the Union Address this week. Though it was easy to miss in the speech, workplace policy observers may have noticed that the president briefly pushed for passage of the Paycheck...more
Agreements to submit disputes to arbitration are commonplace, with parties attempting to avoid the time, cost, and publicity involved in litigating disputes in court. To facilitate these aims, the Federal Arbitration Act (the...more
Last year, a divided Ninth Circuit panel found that the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) did not completely preempt Assembly Bill (AB) 51, California’s ban on mandatory arbitration agreements. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce then...more
California has a long history of animosity towards the arbitration, rather than litigation, of disputes arising in both the employment and consumer context. The most recent effort by the California State Legislature to...more
The EEOC has rescinded its 1997 Policy Statement on Mandatory Binding Arbitration of Employment Discrimination Disputes as a Condition of Employment (the “Policy Statement”), which set forth the Commission’s position that...more
In recent years, many private sector employers have adopted mandatory arbitration programs for employment disputes, which their employees are required to sign as a condition of employment. Main objectives of those programs...more
On August 14, 2019, the NLRB issued its first decision addressing employer conduct related to mandatory arbitration agreements and Section 7 activity since the Supreme Court decided Epic Systems Corp v. Lewis, 584 U.S. __,...more