By: Phillip J. Ebsworth and Justin T. Curley

Seyfarth Synopsis: Another panel from the Second Appellate District issued an opinion, following Galarsa, Piplack, and Gregg, holding that a PAGA plaintiff compelled to individual arbitration retains standing to bring a representative PAGA claim in state court.

The Court did not consider whether the representative claims remaining in court should be stayed under C.C.P. § 1281.4, but instead remanded the question to the trial court to decide the issue, as having previously denied the motion to compel outright, it had not considered the question. Galarsa and Piplack did not address whether the representative claims in state court should be stayed, while Gregg ruled that the representative claims should be stayed but due to the language of the arbitration agreement at issue.