Ninth Circuit Rules California Employers Can Require Arbitration Agreements

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Some good news for California employers. Recently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that California employers can require employees and applicants to sign arbitration agreements as a condition of employment, reversing its own prior decision which vacated U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California’s grant of a preliminary injunction against enforcement of Assembly Bill 51 (AB 51).

By way of background, AB 51, which was signed into law in 2019 and codified in California Labor Code § 432.6, was enacted to protect employees from “forced arbitration” by making it a criminal offense for an employer to require an employee or applicant for employment to consent to arbitrate specified claims a condition of employment. After the District Court granted preliminary injunction against enforcement of AB 51 in January 2020, in September 2021, a divided three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court vacated the preliminary injunction, which was the subject of a previous client alert.

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About the Author: Pascal Benyamini

As a trusted adviser, Pascal Benyamini teams up with employers to defend them against employment law claims and to advise them on compliance, claim prevention, investigations and employment best practices. With a diverse skillset, he also represents furniture manufacturing clients in regulatory matters and litigates shareholder and business disputes. As a former hockey player, Pascal applies the teamwork and tenacity he learned on the ice to his client relationships and advocacy.

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About the Author: Amanda Semaan

Amanda Semaan is a litigator who has a wide range of experience helping corporate clients resolve complex disputes. She primarily represents employers defending wage-and-hour, discrimination and other California employment law claims. She also represents manufacturers of pharmaceuticals, medical devices, food products and other consumer products in product liability disputes, and has experience in multiple aspects of Proposition 65, including compliance, responding to notices of intent to sue, litigation, and settlement.

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