Supreme Court to hand down arbitration opinion this morning: Iskanian v. CLS Transportation

The California Supreme Court announced Friday that this morning, it will hand down its opinion in Iskanian v. CLS Transportation, No. S204032, which was argued on April 4, 2014.

Iskanian involves the enforceability of a no-class-action arbitration clause in an employment contract, and the continued vitality of Gentry post-Concepcion. This blog's reports of the oral argument are here and here.  Most who attended the argument believe that Gentry will be held overruled.

When the opinion is posted online at approximately 10:00 a.m., it should be available here:

• Iskanian v. CLS Transportation Los Angeles, LLC, ___ Cal.4th ___ (Jun. 23, 2014)

Comments

[Elliot Silverman]

Another decision that seems defendant-friendly on its face (Gentry overruled; the NLRA argument rejected) but will probably wind up being plaintiff-friendly in practice (PAGA claims are still not arbitrable, and the last paragraph of the opinion strongly hints that individual arbitration can be stayed until after the PAGA class action is tried). Unless the U.S. Supreme Court grants cert on the PAGA issue, this will probably not change much in California employment litigation, although the overruling of Gentry may have some impact in non-employment cases.