Recently indexed
Analysis of new laws and key decisions in California wrongful-termination and employment law.
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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…
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Ramirez v. Charter Communications: Unconscionability and the Mandatory Qualitative Severance Analysis
Charter’s mandatory arbitration agreement directed employees’ claims into arbitration while carving out the claims Charter itself would bring, compressed FEHA filing to the one-year…
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Vela v. Harbor Rail Services of California, Inc.
A railcar repairman who inspected and repaired freight cars taken out of service in a rail yard brought a wage-and-hour class action and argued…