Commercial Litigation Update

For more than a decade, California courts have wrestled with the challenge of how to resolve disputes over the authenticity of electronically signed arbitration agreements.

While the State Supreme Court has not yet offered conclusive guidance, decisions by the State’s various appellate courts offer insight into what factors a court is likely to consider.

As we have noted before, the holding in Epic Systems v. Lewis contributed to a proliferation of arbitration agreements with class and collective action waivers. Our prior analysis predicted certain datapoints one should ...

On July 8, 2020, the California Court of Appeals held that when an employee fails to initial a specific part of an arbitration agreement, but still signs it, the agreement is still enforceable.

Plaintiff Joseph Martinez brought a series of employment claims against his former employer, BaronHR, Inc., which moved to compel arbitration. Martinez opposed the motion to compel arbitration on the ground that he did not initial the provision outlining his agreement to waive his right to a trial by jury. Martinez argued that the absence of his initials expressed an intent not to arbitrate ...