Ramirez v. Charter Communications, Inc. (Ramirez III), (2025). We previously posted on September 28, 2024, about the California Supreme Court’s Ramirez v. Charter Communications 2024 decision addressing unconscionability and severability in employment arbitration agreements, in which the California Supreme Court agreed that various provisions in an arbitration agreement were unconscionable, but remanded to determine whether […]
The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s confirmation of an employment arbitration award in favor of an employee on FLSA and Arizona state law claims, holding that federal courts have extremely limited authority to vacate arbitration awards and that a claimed factual error by the arbitrator does not warrant vacatur unless it was so critical, […]
Oral Argument Has Already Been Heard In The Following Two Supreme Court Cases. FAA and Jurisdiction. Jules v. Andre Balazs Properties, No. 25-83 (cert. granted Dec. 5, 2025) — whether a federal court that initially had jurisdiction over a case and stayed it pending arbitration retains jurisdiction to confirm or vacate the resulting award under […]
Appointment of the Arbitrator Was a Final Judgment Here. The procedural facts in Barbanell v. Lodge, D084193 (4th Dist. Div. 1 pub. 1/8/26) are unusual. The parties had reached an earlier settlement agreement concerning a long-running water rights dispute. The agreement had a heirarchical settlement procedure — negotiate, mediate, then arbitrate. Barbanell initiated an arbitration. […]
Timing Was Critical To Preserving The Right To Collect Attorney Fees. Plaintiff home buyers of a residence in Santa Cruz County, claiming material nondisclosures by Defendants, offered to mediate the dispute before filing their complaint. Defendant home sellers, the Meyers, rejected the offer to mediate, but reversed their decision and accepted the offer two days […]
Using AI to Parse the Logic of a Legal Opinion We published an article entitled “Using AI to Parse the Logic of a Legal Opinion.” You can read the article by clicking here. We applied Claude Sonnet 4.6 to the recent Supreme Court tariff case, Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, striking down Trump’s tariffs under […]
Is the Ninth Circuit Ruling Fair? Nurses sued Aya Healthcare for wage violations. Each nurse had signed an individual arbitration agreement. Four disputes went to separate arbitrations; two arbitrators upheld the agreements, two struck them down as unconscionable. The district court applied non-mutual offensive collateral estoppel — using the two invalidating awards to void 255 […]