The ruling by the High Court further clarifies the scope of the transportation worker exemption contained in the Federal Arbitration Act.

Enforcement of a 2019 California law (AB 51) that bans mandatory employment arbitration agreements has been permanently enjoined pursuant to a federal court order entered on January 2, 2024.

The “Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act (EFAA)” was enacted a year ago by Congress to prohibit employers from enforcing pre-dispute agreements to arbitrate sexual harassment claims. The first rulings interpreting th

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that a 2019 law enacted by the state of California that makes it a criminal offense for an employer to require an employee or a job applicant to consent to arbitration is preempted by the FAA.

A bipartisan bill that would bar the use of pre-dispute nondisclosure agreements involving sexual assault or harassment claims has been approved by the U.S. Senate and could become law this year.

In its latest pro-arbitration ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the Federal Arbitration Act preempts an interpretation of California’s unique Private Attorneys General Act that prevents individual arbitration of PAGA claims.

According to two new independent survey studies published by the EEOC, one involving mediation program participants and the other involving EEOC mediators, the agency’s switch to virtual mediation is in many cases now viewed by both as preferable to

The High Court’s ruling earlier this week in the case of Southwest Airlines v. Saxon provides guidance on the scope of the Federal Arbitration Act’s transportation worker exemption, although not in the way that either party would have preferred.

The High Court’s ruling this week increases the incentive for an employer to seek to compel arbitration sooner rather than later when a lawsuit gets filed.

A bill that would bar the use of pre-dispute arbitration agreements in the employment context recently passed the House of Representative on a party-line vote. The bill is unlikely to go anywhere in the U.S. Senate.

As we predicted, Congress has approved and sent to President Biden for his signature an amendment to the Federal Arbitration Act that allows a victim of alleged sexual harassment or sexual assault to opt out of a predispute arbitration agreement or j

Bills that would ban or severely limit pre-dispute arbitration agreements to resolve workplace discrimination claims are getting attention in Congress, and one of them has a fair chance of being enacted.

Data recently obtained by CWC from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts show that employment-related lawsuits filed in federal court declined to a 20-year low in Fiscal Year 2020, including declines in every subcategory tracked.

The U.S. Supreme Court decided this week not to review a problematic arbitration ruling out of the Second Circuit in which the appeals court allowed class arbitration to proceed despite strong indicators that the underlying arbitration agreement cont

Although the Supreme Court has made it clear that the Federal Arbitration Act establishes a public policy favoring arbitration of disputes, there is a provision in the FAA that exempts its application to workers “engaged in foreign or interstate comm

Sometimes when ruling on a motion to compel arbitration, a court can be faced with questions of whether the parties actually agreed to arbitrate the dispute. In this case, the influential appeals court has set out a clear rule that when this happens,

Our brief submitted in support of the High Court taking up this case argues that the appeals court misinterpreted both the Federal Arbitration Act and Supreme Court precedent in ruling that an arbitrator could impose class arbitration even though the

The so-called Franken amendment, which has been on the books for a decade, bars certain Department of Defense contractors from requiring employees to arbitrate Title VII claims. In one of the few federal appeals court decisions we’ve seen that interp

California enacted a number of new employment laws during its 2019 legislative session, including a law that bans mandatory employment arbitration and another that requires employers to classify many independent contractors as employees. Legal challe

In the wake of numerous rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court over the last two decades upholding the validity of employment arbitration as an alternative to court litigation, the EEOC has finally abandoned its 1997 policy statement to the contrary.

The Democrat majority in the U.S. House of Representatives has approved another bill on its workplace law overhaul agenda, in this case banning pre-dispute arbitration agreements covering employment and civil rights claims. As is the case with other

The National Labor Relations Board has ruled that an employer did not violate federal labor law even after it revised its arbitration policy in response to a wage and hour lawsuit. In so ruling, the agency relied on a recent Supreme Court decision fi

It is settled law that employment arbitration agreements are a viable legal alternative to court litigation. Nevertheless, these agreements are a form of contract, and are subject to challenges that they violate contract law, as the court found here.

Our latest edition of CWC Interstate summarizes state and local legislative developments of interest to our members that have occurred in the South-Central region of the country since the spring.

With Members of the House out of D.C. on their summer recess, we thought it would be a good time to reflect on how the recently-elected Democratic majority has followed through on its goal of making major changes to federal employment laws. As our me