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Appeals Judges Reverse Course on Arbitration Issue
>An 11-member panel of the US 9 th Circuit Court of Appeals threw out its 1998 ruling that companies couldn’t force workers to arbitrate their discrimination claims, declaring that a San Diego law firm could require private arbitration, according to The Recorder. The eight to three decision came in a case involving law firm Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps.
“The presumption in
(
the 1998 case) … that allowing compulsory
arbitration weakens the 1991 [Civil Rights] Act is
inconsistent with the US Supreme Court’s endorsement
of arbitration,” Judge A. Wallace Tashima wrote for
the majority. Noting that the 9th Circuit stood alone
with its 1998 decision, Tashima echoed the Supreme
Court, saying that arbitration “affects only the
choice of forum, not substantive rights.”
The US high court ruling came in a case involving
electronics retailer Circuit City in which justices
decided that the company’s arbitration program
met the requirements of the Federal
Arbitration Act (FAA).The 9
th
Circuit’s latest holding on the arbitration issue
included several dissents including ones from Judges
Harry Pregerson and Stephen Reinhardt.
“The majority opinion allows employers to force
their employees to choose between their jobs and their
right to bring future Title VII (discrimination) claims
in court,” Pregerson wrote. “That choice is no choice
at all.”
Reinhardt –who wrote the 1998 decision –penned a separate dissent that included a history
of federal civil rights legislation and argued that the
decision “effectively deprives American workers of
their hard-won legislative victory.”
Circuit City has been fighting to save it arbitration
program for several years – an effort that has generated
a number of 9
th
Circuit decisions (SeeCourt: Circuit City Arbitration Policy
Still Invalid).
The latest case is
EEOC v. Luce, Forward
, 03 C.D.O.S. 8755.