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…
Articles Posted in Arbitration
Right to Administrative (Berman) Hearing before the Labor Commissioner under Attack in Light of Concepcion: Employee’s Right to Jury Trial in the Cross Hairs of the US Supreme Court
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…
Another Strike Against an Employer’s Attempt to Force an Unfair Arbitration Agreement Down an Employee’s Throat
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…
Employment, Consumer Class Actions Endangered by Supreme Court
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…
US Supreme Court Permits Arbitrators Rather Than Court to Rule on Whether an Arbitration Agreement is Enforceable Creating an Inherent and Untenable Conflict of Interest
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…
Employment Arbitration Agreement Struck Down as Procedurally & Substantively Unconscionable Where Employee not Provided with Arbitration Rules and Other Provisions Favored the Employer
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…
Court Speaks with More than One Tongue on the Disclosure of Arbitrator’s Bias
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…