On June 15, 2022, the Supreme Court held that a rule of California law that precludes dividing claims under California’s Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) is inconsistent with the FAA. The decision was welcome news for WLF, which filed an amicus brief in the case urging reversal. Here the California Court of Appeal declined to enforce a representative-action waiver in the parties’ arbitration agreement based on the California Supreme Court’s decision in Iskanian v. CLS Transportation Los Angeles. In Iskanian, the court held that because PAGA claims are not divisible into constituent claims, courts need not enforce PAGA representative-action waivers. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed the California Court of Appeal, explaining that a “state rule imposing an expansive rule of joinder in the arbitral context would defeat the ability of parties to control which claims are subject to arbitration.” That, in turn, would allow parties to add “new claims to the proceeding,” effectively coercing parties into withholding PAGA claims from arbitration. WLF’s brief was prepared with the pro bono assistance of Peder Batalden, Felix Shafir, and John Querio of Horvitz & Levy LLP.
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