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
A few months ago, you would have reasonably thought that West Virginia was one of the most anti-arbitration states in the country. There was not an unconscionability argument that the state didn’t seem to buy with respect to arbitration clauses. (Recall its arbitration feud with SCOTUS in 2012?) But, this month, West Virginia’s highest court