Enforceability of Physician Non-Compete Agreements
Despite its best efforts, the California Legislature has been unable to substantially curtail the popularity of employment arbitrations in California. The hostility to employment arbitration remains evident, however, among...more
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
As previously discussed, courts continue to disagree over the enforceability of mandatory arbitration provisions containing class action waivers set forth in benefit plans governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security...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
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
A recent decision reminds parties about the need to draft dispute resolution clauses that are tailored to the parties’ agreement. The Court of Appeal recently ruled that an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) clause in...more
On February 15, 2023, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked a 2020 California law that attempted to prohibit employers from requiring employees and job applicants to agree to arbitration as a condition of employment. The...more
In Bain v. Airoom, LLC, No. 1-21-001, 2022 Ill. App. LEXIS 241, the Appellate Court of Illinois (Appellate Court) considered whether the lower court erred in enforcing an arbitration clause in a construction contract between...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
The plaintiff sued its former lawyer and law firm for legal malpractice. The defendants moved to dismiss and compel arbitration based on a mandatory arbitration clause in the parties’ engagement agreement. The trial court...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: The Washington Supreme Court refused to enforce a mandatory arbitration agreement that was contained within an Employee Handbook. ...more
The #MeToo Movement, now in its third year, continued its evolution from grassroots activism to legislative change in 2019, with new laws addressing discrimination and harassment emerging from state governments and resulting...more
As part of its efforts to rescind outdated guidance on a rolling basis, the EEOC recently dispensed with a 22-year-old policy statement that disfavored mandatory arbitration agreements between employers and employees....more
The Eight Circuit has rejected a plaintiff’s claim that an arbitration clause in a retainer agreement she signed with a law firm after receiving a call from a purported agent of the firm informing her of a purported...more
The U.S. Supreme Court just did something that was more than just a bit out of character—it rejected the opportunity to find that California had once again overstepped its bounds by creating judicial rules disfavoring...more
A Pennsylvania federal district court granted a motion to compel arbitration pursuant to 9 U.S.C. § 4 of the Federal Arbitration Act, over objection by the defendant on severability grounds. The defendant argued that its...more
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama has compelled arbitration despite a former employee’s claim that the arbitration clause in the policy at issue was unconscionable under the circumstances related to...more
In Freeman v. Fid. Brokerage Servs., LLC, the mother of the plaintiffs executed a living trust agreement. No 3:18-CV-0947-G, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 34694 (N.D. Tex. March 5, 2019)....more
Ever since Uber became part of our everyday world, the mandatory arbitration agreement it requires its independent contractor drivers to sign has been under constant scrutiny—and attack. A recent decision, however, fell in...more
Q. Our company has a policy providing for mandatory arbitration of employment claims. I heard recently that some companies are moving away from these types of policies. What are the pros and cons of requiring all employees...more
Following up on a recent post about the intricacies of mandatory arbitration agreements in the workplace, the New Jersey Appellate Division recently held that an arbitration clause that employees did not explicitly agree to...more
The California Court of Appeals became the latest court to determine that a common arbitration agreement related to the EquityComp workers’ compensation insurance program and accompanying reinsurance agreements is...more
A day after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision seen as pro-arbitration – see our January 10, 2019 Blog Post, Arbitrator to Decide Whether Dispute is Subject to Arbitration Even if Argument is “Wholly Groundless,”...more
A recent opinion in the case of Susan L. O’Keefe v. Edmund Optics, Inc., addressed the question of whether an arbitration provision in a written employment agreement could survive the expiration of the agreement’s one-year...more
The Florida Arbitration Code addresses the confirmation, vacation, modification or correction, and appeal of arbitration awards in Florida. In September, a Florida District Court of Appeal addressed whether parties may expand...more