The original story can be found on: https://tinyurl.com/yawlcs4l
Alternatives editor Russ Bleemer is joined once more by Richard Faulkner and Philip Loree Jr., this time about the Supreme Court recently declining to hear a California Supreme Court Case on arbitration and unconscionability, OTO LLC v. Kho.
The U.S. Supreme Court this morning declined a certiorari petition on a California Supreme Court decision to render a wage arbitration agreement unenforceable as procedurally and substantively unconscionable.
While the issue of unconscionability overhangs the breadth of arbitration jurisprudence, the Supreme Court has used the Federal Arbitration Act to preempt such concerns in favor of arbitration’s predominance. AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, 563 U.S.333, 344, 348 (2011). Today’s cert denial can be seen as a divergence from the pattern.
On the other hand, today’s declined case, OTO LLC v. Kho, No. 19-875, reinforces California’s top Court decision that, though it found in favor of the employee opposing arbitration, permitted an agreement to arbitrate wage disputes “so long as it provides an accessible and affordable process.” The California decision follows AT&T Mobility in that it states that the “FAA preempts a state-law rule that categorically prohibits an adhesive arbitration agreement from requiring an employee to waive access to a Berman hearing.”
The Berman hearing is a California administrative process designed to provide a quick, informal, and affordable method for resolving disputes over unpaid wages, according to a brief filed in the case by the state’s labor commissioner.
As a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, Richard D. Faulkner guides all of our other trained arbitration lawyers to provide the highest-quality legal representation for complex domestic and international arbitrations.
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