Patent Infringement: Successful Litigation Stays the "Course"
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois has rejected an argument that opting out of arbitration clauses precluded arbitration under prior arbitration agreements in a dispute between Uber drivers and...more
Arbitration evaders, take note. In February 2022, coach Brian Flores filed a press-grabbing lawsuit accusing the National Football League and its clubs of racially discriminatory hiring practices, the Miami Dolphins of...more
In Payne v. Savannah College of Art and Design Inc., the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a district court order denying a motion to compel arbitration of plaintiff Isaac Payne’s discrimination-based claims. The...more
California employers know that the new year inevitably brings new workplace laws that are finalized at the end of the state’s legislative session in the fall. This year, state lawmakers considered over 2,700 bills – the most...more
New York statutes classify certain civil service positions as exempt where such positions are confidential in nature and require personal qualities that cannot practicably be tested by an examination. These positions are...more
On March 7, 2023, in Dakota Powell vs. Prime Comms Retail LLC, the New Jersey Appellate Division ruled that a former employee must arbitrate her claims of race discrimination, rather than pursue them in court due to her...more
A pleasant surprise for employers. A California appeals court ruled last week that an employer did not waive its right to arbitration -- despite the fact that the parties had been in litigation for more than 13 months...more
The dispute surrounded the employee’s termination due to an inability to be physically present at the workplace. The employee filed suit in Rhode Island state court, alleging that the employer failed to provide reasonable...more
A former executive and in-house lawyer for the Miami Heat basketball franchise sued the team for allegedly violating her rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act when she was terminated from her employment. ...more
While the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) does not provide federal subject matter jurisdiction, federal courts may nevertheless have jurisdiction over proceedings to compel arbitration if the underlying claim is “predicated...more
ZB, N.A. v. Super Ct. of San Diego Cty., 8 Cal. 5th 175, 252 Cal. Rptr. 3d 228 (2019) - Summary: Employee may not recover unpaid wages under Labor Code section 558 through PAGA. Facts: Plaintiff Lawson worked for...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
A recent federal court decision reminds employers that an employee’s electronic acceptance of an arbitration agreement may not, by itself, be enough to prove that the employee has agreed to arbitrate. In Shockley v....more
Petitioners, two Rent-A-Center entities, moved to compel arbitration of a lawsuit by Anita Ellis alleging that Rent-A-Center unlawfully terminated her employment for seeking workers’ compensation benefits....more
The alternative dispute resolution landscape continues to evolve for employers with unionized workforces. Anheuser-Busch, LCC, 367 NLRB 123 (May 22, 2019), is the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) latest decision on the...more
This month’s key employment law cases address the religious organization exemption under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and arbitration agreements....more
Seyfarth Synopsis: The California Supreme Court held that the Labor Management Relations Act does not preempt claims under the Labor Code where a defense requires little more than referring to a collective bargaining...more
Can an employee assent to arbitration through inaction? A recent decision from the U.S District Court for the District of New Jersey in AT&T Mobility Services LLC v. Horowitz addresses the same arbitration agreement...more
The outcome of a recent case in California is a reminder that employers seeking to arbitrate employee disputes need to draft arbitration provisions with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), 15 U.S.C. § 1681, in mind,...more
A recent case from the Northern District of California, Alvarado v Lowe’s Home Centers, LLC, 2018 WL 6697181 (N.D. CA. Dec. 20, 2018), highlights the importance of drafting employment arbitration agreement language to...more
This month’s key employment law cases address nonsolicitation provisions and arbitration agreements. AMN Healthcare, Inc. v. Aya Healthcare Servs., Inc., 28 Cal. App. 5th 923, 239 Cal. Rptr. 3d 577 (2018) Summary:...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: In the midst of a legal landscape that is seemingly pro-arbitration, employers should recognize that employees still have a few strategies to oppose arbitration or invalidate an arbitration agreement. ...more
The Second Circuit has upheld an order granting a petition by Hermès of Paris to compel arbitration after Matthew Swain, a former employee, sued Hermès and a coworker in state court for alleged violations of state...more
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeal found that an arbitration agreement entered into by a putative class representative and his eventual employer was enforceable even though the agreement was signed after the plaintiff filed...more
In a potentially game-changing decision for employers, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York denied a former employee’s motion to compel the depositions of her former employer’s three-person...more