From JDSupra, David Faustman discusses a recent case in which the California Supreme Court did not enforce an arbitration agreement because its was unconscionable. David writes:
In One Toyota of Oakland v. Kho (“OTO”), the California Court struck down an arbitration agreement as “unconscionable,” and allowed an employee to proceed with administrative proceedings before the Labor Commissioner in a routine wage and hour case. While purporting to base its decision on a “fact specific” analysis, the opinion will make it very difficult to compel any wage and hour case to arbitration.
In 2000 in Armendariz, the California Supreme Court largely invented a new doctrine of “unconscionability” which, unhinged from traditional contract analysis, potentially allows a trial judge to deny arbitration where she feels the circumstances are just darned unfair. That potential was on full display in OTO.
The Court in OTO went out of its way to find that the arbitration agreement (a condition of employment) was highly “procedurally unconscionable,” and fraught with “surprise” and “oppression,” and, of course, “lack of negotiation” and “unequal bargaining power.” (So, unless the arbitration agreement has an opt-out provision, that the employer can prove the employee really, really, understood, the risk of “procedural unconscionability” is high.) Having found that the employer engaged in “unconscionable” behavior in drafting and implementing its arbitration agreement, the Supreme Court thus nimbly moved on to find that the agreement was also “substantively unconscionable.”
While Armendariz requires that an arbitration agreement must provide many of the procedural protections of traditional litigation in order to avoid “unconscionability,” those features ironically can now actually create “unconscionability” when the employee seeks to invoke the administrative remedies under the Labor Code. The “Berman Hearing” is an informal, non-binding trial before a hearing officer to adjudicate wage and hour claims. It is apparently just darned unfair to deprive an employee of this remedy notwithstanding a duly-executed arbitration agreement that dictates otherwise.
Read the full story at CA Supreme Court Continues Its Assault On Arbitration Agreements | Fox Rothschild LLP – JDSupra
