PRACTITIONER BLOG
Read our analyses of developments in Impact Litigation and stay current on class action law
Tesla Trounced! Court Shreds Forced Arbitration Agreement & Reaffirms Workers’ Right to Fight for the Public Good Under FEHA in Racial Discrimination Case
For the first time, a California appellate court recently held that the state’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) authorizes plaintiffs to seek public injunctions, and any agreement purporting to waive that agreement is invalid. This decision expressly reaffirms that workers can fight for the public good under FEHA because the public suffers when employer discrimination and harassment go unchecked. California law ensures that workers can seek to protect the public from discrimination and harassment through injunctive relief, even if other types of claims are subject to mandatory individual arbitration.
Southwest flies into trouble as SCOTUS holds transportation workers exempt from Federal Arbitration Act
For decades, conventional wisdom favored an expansive, business-friendly interpretation of the Federal Arbitration Act of 1925—one that has made it easier for corporations to force workers and consumers into arbitration. But this term, in Southwest Airlines v. Saxon, the Supreme Court took a different approach. Following argument by our colleague Jennifer Bennett, the Court zeroed in on the text of the FAA—specifically, how that text would have been understood when the statute was passed in 1925—and recognized an important limitation on what types of workers can be forced into arbitration.