I don’t mean to be imprecise, but I think that the Eleventh Circuit may have recently issued the most luddite opinion I’ve seen in a good long while. See Managed Care Advisory Group, LLC v. CIGNA Healthcare, Inc., 2019 WL 4464301 (11th Cir. Sept. 18, 2019). According to the court, Section 7 of
Eleventh Circuit
Waving Goodbye to Arbitration
By Henry Allen Blair on
Posted in Arbitration Rules/Procedures
I can’t believe we’re more than a week into August! I don’t know about you, but I feel like I’m going to have to say goodbye to summer too soon. I love fall, so maybe that’s not so bad?
Anyway, speaking of farewells, this week we get a back-to-the-basics refresher from the Eleventh Circuit on…
Second Federal Circuit Court Refuses To Enforce Arbitration By South Dakota Tribe
By Liz Kramer on
Posted in Validity of Arbitration Agreement
Using a different analysis, but reaching the same result as a recent decision from the Seventh Circuit, the Eleventh Circuit agreed that a defendant could not compel arbitration of consumer claims before the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Nation in South Dakota. Inetianbor v. CashCall, __ F.3d__, 2014 WL 4922225 (11th Cir. Oct.…
Employer's Attempt To Avoid Ongoing Collective Action By Forcing Potential Plaintiffs To Sign Arbitration Agreements Fails
By Liz Kramer on
In the past year, if I wrote about “FLSA” and “arbitration” in the same post, it likely meant that another federal court had found employers can include class action waivers in their employment contracts without violating the Fair Labor Standards Act. Today, however, is different. The Eleventh Circuit last week found that it was the…
No Federal Presumption of Arbitrability Until Court Finds Valid Arbitration Agreement
By Liz Kramer on
A new opinion from the Eleventh Circuit highlights an issue that can be confusing to those encountering FAA case law for the first time: when does the federal presumption of arbitrability apply? The answer is the presumption only applies to whether the scope of an arbitration agreement is broad enough to encompass the parties’ dispute,…
Defendant Did Not "Waive" Goodbye to Arbitration Despite Litigating For 6 Months
By Liz Kramer on
Posted in Class Arbitration, Waiver of Right to Arbitrate
In contrast to recent decisions from other circuit courts, the Fourth Circuit found a defendant did not waive its right to arbitrate, despite litigating for more than 6 months and conducting discovery. Rota-McLarty v. Santander Consumer USA, Inc., __ F.3d __, 2012 WL 5936033 (4th Cir. Nov. 28, 2012).
In this potential class…
Eleventh Circuit Finds FAA Preempts Nascent Florida Law
By Liz Kramer on
The Eleventh Circuit has decided to proactively preempt Florida law, before it could get in the way of the FAA by favoring class arbitrations (despite contract language precluding them).
In Pendergast v. Sprint Nextel Corp., __ F.3d. __, 2012 WL 3553466 (11th Cir. Aug. 20, 2012), a wireless customer wanted to bring a class action…
Employee-on-Employee Violence Not Within Scope of Arbitration Agreement
By Liz Kramer on
Last week the Eleventh Circuit interpreted the scope of the arbitration agreement within a plaintiff’s employment contract to exclude civil claims stemming from her sexual assault by fellow employees. In doing so, the court may have signaled a discomfort with sending civil claims based on criminal conduct to arbitration.
In Doe v. Princess Cruise Lines…