Defending Judicial Trials of Employment Disputes
I just returned from Tulane University Law School's 27th Annual Multi-State Labor and Employment Law Seminar held at the La Cantera resort in San Antonio, Texas. (See brochure here). Attendees and presenters at this conference are some of the finest and most experienced labor and employment lawyers in the country. During my three days at the conference, I did an unscientific, anecdotal survey of the practitioners I visited with. Without exception, the practitioners I talked to disfavored the arbitration of employment disputes. I've already written about the disadvantages of arbitration on this blog. (See post here). However, I was surprised that I did not find a single lawyer at this conference (and I don't profess to have spoken to all or even a majority of them) that preferred trying a case in arbitration over a case tried to a judge of jury. No one I spoke to had ever enjoyed the "benefits" of a faster or more inexpensive resolution of the dispute in arbitration than would have realized in court. No attorney extolled the virtue of the the limited appeal rights or the "finality" arbitration promises over the appellate rights our Texas rules provide. Therefore, I want to encourage Texas employers to abandon the use of mandatory arbitration programs with their employees in favor of adopting mutual waivers of jury trials. To read about the advantages of jury waivers, click here.
