The Uniqueness of Baseball Arbitration

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
03/14/2024
It’s getting a bit warmer outside, the sun is setting later, the grass is getting longer, and my allergies are starting to make their presence felt. Spring is here, and for baseball fans that means only one thing; opening day is just around the corner. Several weeks before pitchers and catchers reported for spring training, many players were engaged in a different sort of preparation for the upcoming season. Under the current Major League Baseball...
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Union Advocacy Complicates the Challenge of Maintaining Order Among First Responders

Peter Saucier
Peter Saucier
02/01/2023
A bright national spotlight is focused upon the workplace behavior of First Responders.  Each community, and its dedicated fire and police employees, knows to be alert and sensitive to the social reactions that flow from their conduct.  Sometimes, unions and independent arbitrators throw a wrench into the machinery of exercising good judgment and requiring accountability essential to maintaining good order.  A recent example recently arose in...
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Handbook Receipt Language Dooms Mandatory Arbitration Clause

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
04/27/2022
Around the corner from our law offices is Nationwide Motor Sales Corporation (NMSC).  NMSC has been sued by a collection of current and former sales persons who claim Nationwide failed to pay them more than $1 million in commissions.  In response to the filed lawsuit, NMSC moved to compel arbitration, citing the Arbitration Agreement that is contained within its Employee Handbook.  The Fourth Circuit just held, in Coady v. Nationwide Motor Sales...
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Congress on Cusp of Barring Arbitration for Employee Sexual Harassment Claims

Vincent Jackson
Vincent Jackson
02/10/2022
In response to the #MeToo Movement, Congress is on the cusp of passing bipartisan legislation that would prohibit employers from using forced arbitration to resolve claims of workplace sexual harassment and sexual assault.  Though the final bill has not yet been presented for the President’s signature, drafts of the bill have passed both the House and the Senate.  The ban on mandatory arbitration in employment contracts marks a sea change in how...
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Jury Must Decide If Employee Required to Arbitrate

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
10/14/2021
One of the reasons employers sometimes require employees to enter into an arbitration agreement is that it eliminates the risk of having a jury decide the outcome.  However, a Virginia judge recently ruled that an employer must have a jury trial on the issue of whether or not the employee is even required to arbitrate his or her claims.  Davis v. Young & Associates, Inc., No. 1:20-cv-00061 (W.D. Va. 9/15/21) (Abingdon Div.) The case...
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Arbitrators Take One More Step Toward Infallibility

Frank Kollman
Frank Kollman
10/08/2019
The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to review a decision of the Ninth Circuit (http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2018/12/04/16-16363.pdf) allowing an arbitrator to alter the terms of a collective bargaining agreement, despite contract language saying that the arbitrator could not alter the agreement in any way. ASARCO v. Steelworkers , No. 18-1415, Cert denied 10/7/19....
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Arbitrator’s Alleged Bias Against Homosexuals Is Not Grounds to Reverse Award

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
07/26/2019
Recently, a California Court of Appeal rejected a plaintiff/appellant’s claim that his case against his former employer -- which went to arbitration pursuant to their employment agreement -- should be reversed due to the arbitrator’s alleged undisclosed bias against homosexuals.  Bogue v. Anesthesia Service Medical Group, Inc., No. D073518 (Cal. App. 4th Dist. 7/17/19) (unpublished). Dr. Bogue was an anesthesiologist for Anesthesia Service...
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Southern District of New York Sends Sexual Harassment Claim To Arbitration

Vincent Jackson
Vincent Jackson
07/01/2019
A trial judge in the Southern District of New York found that a sexual harassment claim was subject to a mandatory arbitration clause, even though a New York law recently enacted in the wake of the #MeToo movement nullified agreements to arbitrate sexual harassment claims. Latif v. Morgan Stanley, et al., 18-cv-11528-DLC (S.D.N.Y. June 26, 2019). In Latif, a male employee of Morgan Stanley alleged in his federal court complaint that he was sexually...
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“Forced” Arbitration Under Fire

Darrell VanDeusen
Darrell VanDeusen
03/18/2019
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) in the employment arena has been a hot topic for a couple of decades now.  ADR, of course, comes in a variety of flavors – mediation and arbitration are a couple of them.  But essentially, the ADR concept is to find ways other than a lawsuit in court to resolve claims more quickly and with less expense.  That, at least conceptually, is a good thing, since court fights can take many years to work their way...
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Uber Driver Must Ride Solo: Class Action Waiver Enforced Post Epic Systems

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
06/08/2018
On May 21, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, which we previously discussed at length.  That case, which upheld class action waivers in favor of individual arbitration, forces Gustavo Camilo to individually arbitrate his claim that Uber illegally charged him and other drivers a workers' compensation fee. Just a little more than one week after the Epic Systems decision, the trial judge in Camilo v. Uber Techs....
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