Arbitration

The arbitrator, rather than the court, determines whether an arbitration agreement permits classwide arbitration unless the agreement clearly assigns that decision to the court.  Read More

Defendant’s conduct of litigation for 17 months, including a motion to dismiss, extensive discovery, and a deposition, waived the right to invoke arbitration.  Read More

Arbitration clause in contract for home-study course sold in California was unconscionable and unenforceable because it required arbitration of disputes in Indiana, allowed the seller to select the arbitrator, and imposed a one-year limitations period.  Read More

In a dispute over who has to bear the costs of complying with state environmental regulations—power company or its supplier—power company correctly invoked arbitration clause in contract governing parties’ business relationship.  Read More

Because a substantial portion of a California doctor’s medical supplies came from outside the state, the Federal Arbitration Act applied to the doctor’s treatment agreement with his California patient, preempting CCP 1295(c) which would otherwise require the doctor to allow a patient 30 days to opt out of the treatment agreement’s arbitration clause.  Read More

An arbitration clause set out in an appendix to the employee handbook was enforceable as against an employee who claimed not to have read or signed it, since the employee did sign an acknowledgement of receipt of the handbook, and the receipt also mentioned the arbitration clause.  Read More

Parties stipulated to arbitration with each side bearing a portion of arbitration fees, but plaintiff ran out of money, defendant declined to pick up her share of the fees, and arbitration terminated without a ruling on the merits; this combination of circumstances freed plaintiff to pursue her claims in court.  Read More

A narrow arbitration clause in a partnership's operating agreement did not apply to plaintiff's legal malpractice, breach of fiduciary duty and rescission claims which arose from duties the defendant lawyer owed independent of the partnership agreement.  Read More

Suppliers who were third party beneficiaries of phone aggregator’s contract with consumer plaintiff could enforce that contract’s arbitration clause against plaintiff.  Read More

An arbitration award cannot be vacated by the courts due to factual errors or for bias when the arbitrator had previously represented both sides in similar disputes.  Read More

A motion to compel arbitration was properly denied because current suit challenged a corporate acquisition while the arbitration clause covered only exclusive marketing arrangements. Read More

A party moving to compel arbitration need not authenticate the opposing party's signature on the agreement containing the arbitration clause in its initial moving papers, but can wait until after the opposing party has challenged the authenticity of his signature, so defendant's supplemental declaration which was submitted after its moving papers but before plaintiff's opposition was not untimely.  Read More

Arbitration clause in employment agreement was not unconscionable; its reservation of the right to seek injunctive relief pending arbitration merely restated a right conferred by statute, and a non-exclusive list of only employee claims did not make the otherwise bilateral arbitration clause one-sided.   Read More

The trial court correctly vacated the portion of the arbitrator's initial award which awarded attorney fees to defendant employer for defeating plaintiff employee's claims for overtime and meal break compensation which she claimed she was entitled to as a non-exempt employee under California's Labor Code.  Read More

Arbitration clause in franchise contract was unenforceable because the parties had simultaneously signed a second agreement stating the franchise contract was merely a sham.  Read More

Unless the website prominently discloses that use of the site constitutes agreement to its terms, a “browsewrap” disclosure of terms is insufficient to bind the user to the arbitration clause in the site’s terms.   Read More