Following the denial of a petition for rehearing en banc, over a spirited dissent, a Ninth Circuit panel issued its amended order on November 27, 2018 in Sali v. Corona Regional Medical Center, holding that evidence need not be admissible to be considered at the class certification stage. The panel held: “Inadmissibility alone is not a proper basis to reject evidence in support of class certification.”
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Wage & Hour
U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Enforceability of Mandatory Employment Class Action Waivers
On May 21, 2018, the United States Supreme Court upheld the legality of arbitration agreements containing class action waivers. In a 5-4 decision written by Justice Gorsuch, the Court held that arbitration agreements providing for individualized proceedings were valid, and neither the Federal Arbitration Act’s (“FAA”) savings clause, nor the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”) suggest otherwise.
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California Appellate Court Analyzes Employment Arbitration Agreement after Supreme Court’s AT&T Decision
On July 12, 2011, California’s Second Appellate District Court of Appeal issued a decision in Brown v. Ralphs Grocery Company regarding the enforceability of arbitration agreements in the employment context that limit employees’ rights to assert class and representative actions. This was the first published state court decision in California regarding employment arbitration agreements since the United States Supreme Court’s groundbreaking decision in AT&T Mobility, LLC v. Concepción (“AT&T Mobility“), where the Supreme Court held that California case law invalidating class action waivers in consumer arbitration agreements is preempted by the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”). (For a detailed analysis of the AT&T decision, please visit Sheppard Mullin’s labor and employment blog dated April 27, 2011.)
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