preempt

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Now that Justice Gorsuch is confirmed and can take the open seat on the Supreme Court, maybe SCOTUS can move forward on the cases about whether employers can make employees waive their right to class actions in an arbitration agreement.  (Btw, here’s a nice SCOTUSblog piece on Gorsuch’s arbitration decisions.)  In the meantime, California’s…

In a fight over whether a single lending transaction involved interstate commerce, the Supreme Court of Nebraska found the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) applied and preempted its state arbitration act.  Wilczewski v. Charter West Nat’l Bank, __ N.W.2d__ (Neb. Dec. 9, 2016).

The case involved buyers who purchased a home from a bank (who…

The Supreme Court of Louisiana refuses to send customers who were injured while playing at Sky Zone to arbitration, finding that the arbitration clause “is adhesionary and therefore unenforceable”.  Duhon v. Activelaf, LLC, __ So. 3d __, 2016 WL 6123820 (La. Oct. 19 2016); Alicea v. Activelaf, LLC, __ So. 3d __, 2016…

Cue the R.E.M folks, because the Supreme Court of Missouri issued a 4-3 opinion recently that appears to upend many employment arbitration agreements in that state.  Baker v. Bristol Care, Inc., __ S.W.3d__, 2014 WL 4086378 (Mo. Aug. 19, 2014).  However, the situation is not as dire as it may seem.

The high court…

Put this post in the “I called it” category.

On June 12, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court declared in Feeney that class arbitration waivers are invalid under Massachusetts law if plaintiffs cannot effectively pursue their claims in individual arbitration.  On June 20, the U.S. Supreme Court decided American Express, holding that arbitration agreements must…

Within weeks of its issuance, SCOTUS’s Sutter decision is already making an impact on other cases. Both the Eleventh Circuit and the D.C. Court of Appeals cite Sutter repeatedly in recent decisions that refuse to vacate arbitration awards.  Of course, new decisions are not the only ones that reverberate: Concepcion, a 2011 decision, was…

The Fourth Circuit issued a bold new arbitration decision last week, sending a putative class of shuttle drivers to arbitration while expanding its application of SCOTUS’ Concepcion decision beyond cases involving federal preemption of state arbitration law.  Muriithi v. Shuttle Express, Inc., __ F.3d __, 2013 WL 1287859 (4th Cir. 2013).

Muriithi was a…