Federal Arbitration Act

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By: Robert Whitman and John Phillips

If Appraisal Is Governed by the Federal Arbitration Act, What Is the Process? | Property Insurance Coverage Law Blog | Merlin Law GroupSeyfarth Synopsis: Recently, Congress passed significant new legislation amending the Federal Arbitration Act and precluding employers from mandating that employees arbitrate sexual harassment or sexual assault claims.  Importantly for employers, however, this new law does not impact employers’ ability to require arbitration of wage-hour claims, which, for most employers, is benefit of employment arbitration …
Continue Reading Mandatory Arbitration of Wage-Hour Claims Alive and Well After Congress Bans Some Agreements

By David S. Baffa, Noah A. Finkel, and Joseph S. Turner

Seyfarth Synopsis: Congress has once again proposed legislation that would seek to ban mandatory workplace arbitration of employment claims, despite a string of United States Supreme Court decisions upholding arbitration and class/collective action waivers as a lawful and appropriate mechanism to resolve workplace disputes. 

H.R. 7109,…
Continue Reading Halloween Bill Provides a Scare By Seeking to Prohibit Workplace Arbitration Altogether

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

Co-authored by David D. Kadue and Simon L. Yang

On Tuesday, January 20, 2015, the Court declined to take the case of CLS Transportation Los Angeles, LLC v. Iskanian, in which an employer asked the Court to reverse a ruling of the California Supreme Court. At issue was whether an employee who has agreed to submit all employment-related claims…
Continue Reading U.S. Supreme Court Declines to Referee Slugfest Between Federal and California Courts on Enforceability of Arbitration Agreements

Co-authored by Colleen Regan and David Kadue

Gentry is dead.  Back in 2007, the California Supreme Court, in Gentry v. Superior Court held that California public policy favoring class actions was so important that employers cannot have employees, in arbitration agreements, waive their right to pursue a class action.  Many thought that the Gentry rule contradicted the Federal Arbitration Act,…
Continue Reading BREAKING NEWS RE CALIFORNIA CLASS ACTION WAIVERS: GENTRY IS DEAD; LONG LIVE PAGA.

Authored by Gena Usenheimer

In a decision that is becoming more and more commonplace, last week the Central District of California enforced a class action waiver in an arbitration agreement, rejecting the panoply of arguments raised by the plaintiff in opposition.

In Appelbaum v. AutoNation, Inc., et al., the plaintiff sought to representative a putative class of service technicians and…
Continue Reading Another One Bites the Dust: Central District of California Joins the Chorus of Courts Enforcing Class Action Waivers

Seyfarth_Logo.jpgCo-authored by Loren Gesinsky and Scott Rabe

Employers across the country are in the midst of planning, decorating, and reveling in good cheer as they prepare to enjoy — or perhaps already did enjoy — an office holiday party.

While most employment attorneys and human resources professionals appreciate the potential morale-building of office holiday parties — and do not want…

Continue Reading Don’t Be Scrooged: Wage & Hour Tips To Help Employers Avoid Holiday Party Humbug

Ninth Circuit.jpgCo-authored by David Kadue and Julie G. Yap

On Tuesday, an en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit heard oral argument regarding whether California’s rule against compulsory arbitration for claims of public injunctive relief was preempted by the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) in Kilgore v. KeyBank NA.  As we reported in March of this year, a three judge panel…

Continue Reading En Banc Ninth Circuit in the Ring to Confront the Enforceability of Class Action Waivers, but Appears Unwilling to Deliver the Knock-Out Punch

Employ Agmt.jpgAuthored by Fred Sanderson 

On February 24, 2011, in Sonic-Calabasas A, Inc. v. Moreno, the California Supreme Court invalidated an employment arbitration agreement in the context of an administrative wage proceeding.  According to the court, requiring an employee to waive his or her right to a formal administrative hearing before the California Labor Commissioner was both “contrary to…

Continue Reading United States Supreme Court Vacates California Supreme Court Ruling Invalidating Arbitration Agreements In Administrative Wage Proceedings

Mass.jpgCo-authored by Richard Alfred and James Hlawek

A Massachusetts Superior Court judge recently invalidated an arbitration class action waiver, even though the U.S. Supreme Court found in its AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion ruling earlier this year that federal law preempts state laws that interfere with an employer’s ability to enforce arbitration agreements with class action waivers.  This ruling shows…

Continue Reading Your Arbitration Class Action Waiver May Not Be Enforceable in Massachusetts