We’ve been blogging about attacks on workplace arbitration for over ten years now. (See, for example, this October 2009 post.) AB 51 represents the latest attempts by plaintiffs’ attorneys to ensure that their clients have continued access to employee-friendly juries, rather than to arbitrators with experience understanding and applying the relevant law. We’ve written
Employment Arbitration
What’s Behind the Battle Over Workplace Arbitration?
By Jeffrey D. Polsky on
Posted in Employment Litigation
We’ve been talking a lot about employment arbitration since the passage of AB 51. We’ve discussed the bill itself, and we’ve reassessed the pros and cons of workplace arbitration since its passage. But what’s all the fuss about? It seems that every legislative session in California, we get a new bill attempting to do…
Another Benefit of Arbitrating Employment Disputes
By Jeffrey D. Polsky on
Posted in Employment Litigation
One of my least favorite phrases in blogging is “repurposing content.” The verb “repurposing” hurts my ears. You can give something a purpose, but you’re not “purposing” it. And if “purposing” isn’t a verb, how did “repurposing” become one?
While I hate the term, I love the concept. We’ve posted to this blog over 550…
New Arbitration Protections for CA Employees
By Jeffrey D. Polsky on
Posted in Employment Litigation
California’s legislature has passed two new statutes that increase the protections for employees arbitrating workplace disputes.
SB 1007, which passed on September 1, 2016, gives any party to arbitration proceedings “the right to have a certified shorthand reporter transcribe any deposition, proceeding, or hearing as the official record.” I routinely advise employers to have…
The Pros and Cons of Requiring Workplace Arbitration
By Jeffrey D. Polsky on
Posted in Employment Litigation
We’ve written extensively about mandatory workplace arbitration. But it was still an honor when CEB, a program of the University of California that is cosponsored by the State Bar of California, asked me to write a guest post for their CEBlog on the pros and cons of implementing such a program. You can read that…
Judicial Hostility to Employment Arbitration Flares up in 9th Circuit
By Jeffrey D. Polsky on
When you draft employment arbitration agreements, it’s not enough to know what the law is. You should also know what the law will be at the time that someone challenges the agreement. Since this area of law changes continuously, that’s pretty hard to do without a crystal ball.
For a while, some courts in California…
Should CA Arbitration Agreements Allow Employees to Opt Out?
By Jeffrey D. Polsky on
Posted in Employment Litigation
My colleague Brian Berkley in Philadelphia wrote a piece in today’s Law360 titled “Can Opt-Out Provisions Save Arbitration Clauses?” He focuses on recent litigation involving Uber and its efforts to enforce arbitration agreements (which include class action waivers) against employees seeking to litigate wage and hour claims in court. Brian explains that Uber…
California and Federal Workplace Arbitration Law Remain in Conflict – MHN Govt. Svcs. v. Zaborowski
By Jeffrey D. Polsky on
Posted in Employment Litigation
We asked nearly 4 years ago if Armendariz (the key California Supreme Court case from 2004 on employment arbitration) was on a collision course with Concepcion (the US Supreme Court case from 2011). Concepcion said that the Federal Arbitration Act preempts state laws that “stand[] as an obstacle to the accomplishment and execution of the…
Can’t You Be For Arbitration and Against Rape?
By Jeffrey D. Polsky on
Posted in Discrimination, Harassment
I’ve been sitting on this one for a while. Every time I tried to write about it, it came across as either too indignant or too glib and I gave up. But with the issuance of a final rule from the Defense Department, the Franken Amendment is getting some attention again. So let me try…