Authored by Kiran A. Seldon

Seyfarth Synopsis: Three decisions issued earlier this month reveal an increasing tension between the Ninth Circuit and California appellate courts on whether representative PAGA actions can be arbitrated. As a result, employers wishing to compel arbitration of representative PAGA claims are likely to be better off in federal court than in state court.

In 2014,
Continue Reading Arbitrating PAGA Representative Actions: Federal and State Courts Begin to Part Ways

Authored by Simon L. Yang

As discussed by our Consumer Class Defense Blog, this week’s Supreme Court decision in DirecTV, Inc. v. Imburgia reversed a California Court of Appeal that had applied the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act’s prohibition of class waivers in arbitration agreements. According to the lower court’s decision, an arbitration agreement’s terms—directing application of the “law
Continue Reading Supreme Court Airs Re-Run on Class Waivers in DirecTV But Disappoints Again by Declining PAGA Waiver Programming

Authored by Emily Barker

This week, in Sakkab, et al v. Luxottica Retail North America, Inc., the Ninth Circuit ruled that an employee cannot waive the right to bring a representative action under the Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”) through an arbitration agreement or any other means. In so doing, it found the California Supreme Court’s “Iskanian
Continue Reading Ninth Circuit’s Pro-PAGA Decision Is Not the Death Knell for Class Waivers in Arbitration Agreements