Despite the modern trend and convenience of using online onboarding of employees with click-through or e-signed acknowledgments and agreements with employees, I still think it is a better practice to have important agreements that an employer may try to enforce in court (e.g., arbitration and noncompetion agreements) physically signed by employees and the originals documents

Many employers have implemented mandatory arbitration programs to resolve disputes with employees.  When sued by an employee, an employer with a mandatory arbitration provision occasionally delays seeking an order compelling the lawsuit into arbitration.  When a delay occurs, the party seeking to keep the case in court (usually the employee), may resist arbitration arguing that

On March 3, 2022, the President signed the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021 (“Act”).  The new law amends the Federal Arbitration Act to prohibit the enforceability of mandatory, predispute arbitration agreements and class action waivers of sexual assault and sexual harassment disputes.  The passage of the law comes

Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated the arbitration agreements that an interstate trucking company had with its independent contractor drivers. That case arose in the context of a class action wage and hour lawsuit brought by a group of independent contractor interstate truck drivers alleging that they were not properly paid.  The company

I’m traveling for work this week but today’s Supreme Court opinion is one I have been waiting for all term. In Epic Systems v. Lewis, the Court held that arbitration agreements between employees and employers that require mandatory arbitration of disputes can also require that all disputes be arbitrated individually and not as a

Texas law favors the resolution of disputes using alternative dispute resolution mechanisms such as arbitration.  To compel an employee’s claim to arbitration, the employer need only show that a valid agreement to arbitrate exists and the claims asserted by the employee fall within the scope of the agreement.  Many companies utilize technology such as online

Arbitration agreements containing class action waivers can be an effective way for employers to mitigate risk against defending large scale mass actions filed by employees. And in the Fifth Circuit, the federal Court of Appeals covering Texas, and three other federal circuits, individual arbitration agreement containing class-action waivers are enforceable.

In a recent Seventh Circuit

I first wrote about the NLRB’s decision that pre-dispute arbitration agreements waiving the right to assert claims as part of a class action violated federal labor law in January 2012 (post).  Back then, I thought it was prudent for employers to wait for the result of the the inevitable appeal that would follow before

In a per curiam opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court held that under the Federal Arbitration Act arbitrators, not courts,must determine the enforceability of covenants not to compete when the parties are subject to agreements that call for the mandatory arbitration of disputes.

In Nitro-Lift Technologies v. Howard, two employees left their employment with Nitro-Lift and began