Recently indexed
Analysis of new laws and key decisions in California wrongful-termination and employment law.
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Betanco v. Living Spaces Furniture: § 1 Exemption + Labor Code § 229 — When State Law Keeps Wage Claims in Court
Luis Betanco delivered Living Spaces furniture from the retailer’s California distribution centers to California customers and never crossed a state line. In a published…
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LaCour v. Marshalls: Headless PAGA and Whether the Parties Agreed to Arbitrate an Individual PAGA Claim
Marshalls moved to compel arbitration of the individual component of a single-count PAGA action under a 2014 arbitration agreement, relying on Viking River. Division…
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Westmoreland v. Kindercare: The PAGA-Waiver Poison Pill
Kindercare’s arbitration agreement contained a “poison pill”: a clause providing that the whole agreement is invalid if its class/representative-action waiver is unenforceable. Because a…
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Cook v. USC: Infinite Duration, All-Claims Scope — Unconscionable and Unseverable
USC required a staff employee to sign an arbitration agreement reaching ‘all claims, whether or not arising out of’ her employment, against USC and…
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Bissonnette v. LePage Bakeries Park St.: The FAA § 1 Exemption Follows the Work, Not the Industry
A unanimous Supreme Court held that the Federal Arbitration Act’s § 1 exemption for transportation workers turns on what a worker does, not the…
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Vo v. Technology Credit Union: JAMS Rule 17, Nonparty Discovery, and the Split with Aixtron
A terminated employee resisted arbitration of his FEHA claims, arguing that under Aixtron the arbitrator could not compel prehearing third-party discovery. The Sixth District…
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Smith v. Spizzirri: FAA § 3 Requires a Stay, Not Dismissal
Delivery drivers sued for wage and misclassification violations; their employer moved to compel arbitration and dismiss. A unanimous Supreme Court held that FAA §…
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Stoker v. Blue Origin: Pervasive Unconscionability and the Refusal to Sever (post-Ramirez)
A terminated Blue Origin executive opposed arbitration of his FEHA and related claims. The Court of Appeal affirmed the denial of arbitration on unconscionability…
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Arzate v. ACE American: Who Must Initiate Arbitration After an Order Compelling
After a court compelled arbitration of a wage-and-hour class action, neither side filed a demand, and the trial court lifted the stay on the…
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Velarde v. Monroe Operations: HR Misrepresentations as Unconscionability
A newly hired care coordinator was pressured to sign an arbitration agreement amid a stack of 31 onboarding documents on her first day. When…