Apologies to Winston Churchill, but the conflict over the enforcement of arbitration agreements with class waivers has become an ongoing legal and ideological struggle. Some view individual arbitration as a quicker and less...more
1/18/2017
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Collective Actions ,
Ernst & Young ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
Murphy Oil USA ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Section 7
Given California’s past resistance to mandatory arbitration agreements with class action waivers, it should come as no surprise that the state has now enacted two laws primarily directed at arbitration.
On Sept. 25,...more
Amid contrary decisions by the Seventh and Ninth Circuits, the Second Circuit followed its earlier precedent in Patterson v. Raymours Furniture Co., No. 15-2820 (Sept. 2, 2016), enforcing an Employment Arbitration Program...more
In a 2-1 ruling, the Ninth Circuit became the second federal court of appeals to agree with the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) position that the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) prohibits class action waivers in...more
Following in the wake of an earlier opinion, the Eighth Circuit rebutted the National Labor Relations Board’s (“Board”) arguments that by requiring employees to enter into arbitration agreements with a class and collective...more
In a sweeping May 26 opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit shook up the arbitral landscape and created a remarkable circuit split regarding the enforceability of arbitration agreements with class action...more
Amid the meteoric rise of statutory damage class action filings, the Supreme Court laid out ground rules on Monday for when a case meets both components of the injury-in-fact requirements of Article III.
In a 6-2 opinion...more
Some may have thought that once waived, the right to arbitrate is gone forever. No so! The Eleventh Circuit decision in Collado v. J & G Transport, Inc., No. 15-14635 (11th Cir. April 21, 2016) is but the latest example. In...more
4/26/2016
/ Amended Complaints ,
Arbitration ,
Breach of Contract ,
Class Action ,
Collective Actions ,
Commercial Truck Drivers ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal v State Law Application ,
Independent Contractors ,
Motion to Compel ,
Quantum Meruit ,
Unpaid Overtime ,
Wage and Hour ,
Waivers ,
Young Lawyers
We opined on several occasions that cases dealing with a party’s entitlement to class or collective arbitration were a dying breed because of the increased use of class action waivers. And we have been proven wrong by several...more
Not only did Uber respond to the district court’s December 9, 2015, ruling (discussed in our December 11 blog) with an immediate notice of appeal, but on December 11 it rolled out a new arbitration agreement for its drivers....more
On September 2, we addressed the much-publicized O’Connor v. Uber Technologies, Inc. case (No. 13-cv-03826-EMC) pending before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. In O’Connor, a group of 160,000...more
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review whether the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) preempts a California state court rule on unconscionable provisions that is purportedly applied more stringently to arbitration agreements...more
10/9/2015
/ Arbitration Agreements ,
AT&T Mobility v Concepcion ,
DirectTV ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Preemption ,
Putative Class Actions ,
SCOTUS ,
Unconscionable Contracts
The Ninth Circuit Decision -
Delivering a perhaps unexpected blow to employers, the Ninth Circuit sided with the California Supreme Court earlier this week in upholding the state-court-fashioned Iskanian rule, which...more
10/9/2015
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
AT&T Mobility ,
AT&T Mobility v Concepcion ,
CA Supreme Court ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Coca Cola ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Iskanian ,
Iskanian v CLS Transportation ,
Preemption ,
Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) ,
Unpaid Overtime ,
Wage and Hour
As we stated previously, the potential impact of whether entitlement to class arbitration is a “gateway issue” will likely diminish with each passing year. (See our March 12, 2015, blog article on the denial of certiorari in...more
Supreme Court Decision in North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners v. Federal Trade Commission Prompts Legal Challenges to State Professional Boards - Earlier this month a Texas federal district court judge granted a...more
For a second time the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case challenging a California Supreme Court holding that the state’s Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) could not be waived in a mandatory arbitration agreement....more
6/4/2015
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Bridgestone ,
CA Supreme Court ,
Class Action ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Iskanian v CLS Transportation ,
Preemption ,
Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) ,
SCOTUS ,
Wage and Hour
Social media has dramatically impacted many areas of law, and class and collective action litigation is no exception. Recently, a number of former interns who sued Gawker Media LLC and its owner Nick Denton (Gawker) for wage...more
4/17/2015
/ Class Action ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Facebook ,
Gawker ,
LinkedIn ,
Opt-In ,
Popular ,
Service of Process ,
Social Media ,
Social Networks ,
Twitter ,
Wage and Hour ,
Young Lawyers
After reading the Supreme Court’s opinion in Oxford Health Plans, LLC v. Sutter, 133 S. Ct. 2064 (2013), some might have concluded that the Court was ready to resolve who determines the availability of class arbitration court...more
The divide continues between California and federal law on whether an arbitration agreement can entirely waive an employee’s ability to seek classwide or multiparty representational relief. The Supreme Court on Tuesday denied...more
1/22/2015
/ Arbitration ,
Class Action ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
CLS Transportation ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Iskanian ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) ,
SCOTUS ,
Trucking Industry
In an October 22, 2014, posting, we addressed the growing divide between California federal district courts and the California Supreme Court over whether an arbitration agreement can waive an employee’s right to pursue a...more
One of the last barriers to full enforcement of arbitration agreements with class action waivers sustained another blow last week. A California federal district court disagreed with the California Supreme Court in holding...more
A federal district judge in Hammond, Indiana, has permitted a rail union to pursue injunctive remedies in a Title VII pattern-or-practice discrimination claim on behalf of its black members without compliance with Rule 23. In...more
Today, in a highly-anticipated decision, the California Supreme Court in Iskanian v. CLS Transportation Los Angeles, Inc. (Case No. S204032), resolved several long-standing questions regarding the impact of class and...more
A Sixth Circuit panel found the text of an updated arbitration agreement indicated it did not apply to a wage and hour class action already pending when the agreement was signed. Russell v. Citigroup, Inc., Case No. 13-5994...more
Almost three decades ago, the U.S. Supreme Court explained that state courts had to extend fundamental due process protections to absent class action members. Now, a new petition for certiorari review presents the Court with...more