Articles Posted in Arbitration

I know I’ve said this before, but if employers so relish their precious right to force employees to arbitrate all their claims, why can’t they get it right and draft a simple arbitration agreement so that it is enforceable? Mayers v. Volt Management Corp.,__ C.A.4th___ (Feb. 2, 2012) is another example of an employer getting…

The conservative US Supreme Court’s activist agenda is in full throttle in the mandatory arbitration arena. In the AT&T v. Concepcion case (see prior blog of July 6, 2011), the US Supreme Court planted its thumb squarely on the employer’s side of the scales of justice by overturning past law and holding that there is…

Ms. Zullo worked for a newspaper publisher, Inland Valley Publishing Company. The employer’s handbook contained a policy requiring mandatory arbitration of employment disputes. The handbook stated that any arbitration would be governed by the American Arbitration Association rules, but failed to set forth those rules in detail. The handbook did require that an employee who…

The US Supreme Court’s April 27, 2011 decision in AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion (2011) 563 U.S. _ is just the latest in a disturbing slide of the high court away from individual rights and liberties towards ever increasing corporate impunity. With its Concepcion decision, the Court further rolls back one of the lasting achievements…

Despite the prevalence and overreaching of arbitration agreements in employment cases, traditionally in state and federal court, interpreting both the Federal and California Arbitration Acts (FAA and CAA, respectively), employees have at least been permitted to seek a Court’s determination about whether or not the arbitration agreement the employee signed is enforceable. In other words,…

It is another win for the employee in the ongoing battle to make mandatory employment arbitrations more equitable to the employee. Since the concept of mandatory arbitration agreements has been so overwhelmingly endorsed by the courts, some courts have still felt compelled to keep striking down a host of scurrilous provisions employers keep tacking onto…

On August 2, 2010 the California Supreme Court saw no problem with the fact that a disgraced and discredited retired judge – who was publicly censured for creating “an overall courtroom environment where discussion of sex and improper ethnic and racial comments were customary” – served as an arbitrator in a medical malpractice case brought…