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Since the 2011 United States Supreme Court decision in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, appellate courts have assessed whether arbitration clauses with class action waivers are enforceable.  Concepcion said yes and most courts have followed that precedent.  The Ninth Circuit in Richards v. Ernst & Young on August 21, 2013 also followed the majority of the…

As an employment law attorney, I regularly advise employers on personnel issues, including the conduct of internal investigations into employee complaints.  Colleagues at my firm have a similar practice.  We review investigation summaries and counsel human resources professionals in the conduct of investigations into internal complaints, including those involving discrimination, harassment and retaliation.  I thought…

That bastion of unpredictable decisions, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, followed a somewhat predictable path and recently held that the Federal Arbitration Act preempted a state law that disfavored arbitration.  This is another decision that reinforces the power of Concepcion and the favored status of arbitration, while ruling against the consumer (in this case)….

No surprise here.  The United States Supreme Court continued on a consistent path and found that a waiver for class actions in an arbitration agreement was enforceable.  In American Express Co. v. Italian Colors Restaurant, two businesses challenged the waiver of a class action in the arbitration agreement it had with American Express by pursuing…

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on June 10, 2013 strongly suggests that employers should ensure that their arbitration agreements contain express language that excludes the arbitration of class action claims for that position to be enforceable. In Oxford Health Plans LLC v. Sutter, the Supreme Court upheld an arbitrator’s ruling that a broad-based arbitration agreement…