Arbitration

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As readers of this blog know, prior to the Supreme Court’s decision in AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, the California Supreme Court (and a number of other state courts) had declared that waivers of class-wide arbitration were unenforceable as a matter of state law. But in Concepcion, the Supreme Court held that the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) preempts state-law rules requiring the availability of class-wide arbitration.

How do the FAA and the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution affect the interpretation of arbitration clauses written prior to Concepcion? The Supreme Court may provide further guidance on that…
Continue Reading Supreme Court Grants Certiorari To Address Interplay of Federal Arbitration Act And State-Law Savings Clause In Arbitration Agreement

In our first post of 2015, we wanted to congratulate our colleague and mentor, Evan Tager, for his recent recognition as a Litigation Trailblazer and Pioneer by the National Law Journal.

Evan has been at the forefront of major developments in the law—including those affecting class action and mass tort litigation.  As this profile notes, Evan has been a leader on at least two major issues.  First, he helped convince courts of the need for due process limitations on excessive punitive damages awards, ultimately prevailing in BMW of North America v. Gore.  And second—working with us and others…
Continue Reading Congratulations to “Litigation Trailblazer and Pioneer” Evan Tager

In the three years since AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, courts have largely been rejecting substantive attacks on arbitration agreements that waive class actions.  By contrast, in some cases plaintiffs have succeeded in avoiding arbitration by arguing that they never agreed to it in the first place.

The latest case to address such questions of contract formation comes from the Ninth Circuit, which held last week in Nguyen v. Barnes & Noble, Inc. that  plaintiff Kevin Nguyen had not agreed to arbitration because he and similarly situated consumers lacked sufficient notice of the company’s online “browsewrap” terms of use.  …
Continue Reading Getting to “yes”: Ninth Circuit provides guidance on formation of “browsewrap” arbitration agreements

Later this week, DRI—an important professional organization that serves as a leading voice for the defense bar and in-house counsel—will once again hold its annual seminar on class actions in Washington, D.C.  I will be one of the speakers, and will be discussing recent developments affecting arbitration and class actions.  I plan to preview some of the issues that I’ll be discussing on the blog in the weeks to come.   More information about the seminar is available here.  I look forward to seeing readers of our blog and other friends and colleagues.
Continue Reading Upcoming Class Action Seminar in Washington, DC

The hostility of some California courts to arbitration—and their resistance to preemption under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA)—has produced nearly three decades of U.S. Supreme Court reversals. The most recent is AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, which held that the FAA preempted the Discover Bank rule, under which the California Supreme Court had blocked enforcement of consumer arbitration agreements that required individual rather than class arbitration. Last week’s decision in Imburgia v. DirecTV, Inc. (pdf) demonstrates that resistance to Concepcion lives on in the California courts, even at the cost of creating a split with the Ninth Circuit on…
Continue Reading Another California Court Does Backflips to Thwart Arbitration and Elevate The Class-Action Device

Back in 2008, the Supreme Court held in Hall Street Associates, L.L.C. v. Mattel, L.L.C. that parties to an arbitration agreement subject to the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) cannot agree to empower a federal court with more searching judicial review than section 10 of that Act specifies. According to the Ninth Circuit, just as the FAA doesn’t allow parties to contract for expanded judicial review of arbitral awards, it also forbids parties from contracting for narrower judicial review. The case therefore provides important guidance for parties crafting arbitration agreements.

Here’s some background. Section 10(a) permits a court to vacate an…
Continue Reading Hall Street Runs Both Ways: Parties Can Neither Waive Nor Expand Judicial Review of Arbitration Awards, Says Ninth Circuit

The day after we released our study (pdf) of class action litigation, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued some preliminary results in connection with its study of arbitration under the Dodd-Frank Act. (That statute gives the CFPB power to regulate or prohibit the use of arbitration agreements by the businesses it oversees, but requires the Bureau first to conduct a study of arbitration agreements.)

The agency repeatedly describes the information that it reports as “preliminary” and subject to further review and revision, and states that the subjects covered are those as to which it has been able to gather information—and…
Continue Reading CFPB Has Much More Work To Do On Arbitration Study

We have frequently chronicled the ongoing efforts of the plaintiffs’ bar to circumvent the Supreme Court’s decision in AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, which held that the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) requires the enforcement of parties’ agreements to resolve their disputes through individual arbitration rather than class or collective proceedings. One of the most prominent efforts to evade Concepcion has been the National Labor Relations Board’s ruling in D.R. Horton (pdf), which declared that the right of employees to engage in “concerted activities” under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) trumps the FAA and requires that employees be allowed to bring class actions (either in court or arbitration). The Board also pointed to the Norris-LaGuardia Act, which provides that employees “shall be free from the interference, restraint, or coercion of employers” in “concerted activities.” In the NLRB’s view, any business subject to the Board’s jurisdiction (and that includes most private-sector businesses) that requires its employees to agree to resolve disputes through individual arbitration has engaged in an unfair labor practice and faces the threat of agency action.

Numerous plaintiffs seeking to invalidate arbitration provisions in employment agreements have claimed that the Labor Board’s D.R. Horton decision establishes the invalidity of arbitration provisions that include a class waiver, but virtually every court to consider the question has declined to follow the NLRB’s lead. Yesterday, in an important decision for employers nationwide, the Fifth Circuit invalidated the Board’s decision, holding in DR Horton, Inc. v. NLRB (pdf) that the NLRB’s position is inconsistent with the FAA. In overturning the Board’s order, the Fifth Circuit noted its agreement with “[e]very one of our sister circuits to consider the issue,” each of which “has either suggested or expressly stated that they would not defer to the NLRB’s rationale, and held arbitration agreements containing class waivers enforceable.” Slip op. at 25 (citing Richards v. Ernst & Young, LLP (9th Cir.), Sutherland v. Ernst & Young LLP (2d Cir.), and Owen v. Bristol Care, Inc. (8th Cir.)). (Our colleague Andy Pincus will be arguing this issue in the Ninth Circuit later this week in Johnmohammadi v. Bloomingdale’s, Inc. on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; a PDF of our amicus brief in that case is available here.)Continue Reading Fifth Circuit Overturns NLRB’s Anti-Arbitration D.R. Horton Ruling

Law Seminars International is once again holding its annual class actions conference in Chicago on December 9 and 10.  As in past years, the organizers have put together a great group of speakers to address the most recent developments affecting class actions .  For my part, I am looking forward to speaking on an issue we cover frequently on the blog:  the impact of arbitration on class-action litigation.

 A copy of the conference’s agenda is available here.  If any of the blog’s readers plan to attend the conference (or will be in Chicago during that time), I would love…

Continue Reading Conference On Class Actions In Chicago on December 9 and 10, 2013

The California Supreme Court has a long history of inventing new rules—either from common law or as “glosses” on statutes—to invalidate arbitration agreements entered into by consumers and employees. For example, in 2005, that court announced a new unconscionability rule—the“Discover Bank” doctrine, which was named after one of the parties to the case—that effectively blocked enforcement of every consumer arbitration agreement that did not permit class procedures. The U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion held that the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) preempted the Discover Bank rule.

Will the California Supreme Court faithfully apply…
Continue Reading Will California Strike Again? The Latest Word From the California Supreme Court On Enforcing Arbitration Agreements