Gentry v. Superior Court of Los Angeles County

Case Updates

The California Supreme Court disagreed with NCLC and held that employment arbitration agreements that prohibit classwide relief are unenforceable if class arbitration would be a significantly more effective way of vindicating employees’ rights than individual arbitration.

NCLC filed a brief urging the California Supreme Court to confirm the commonsense principle that when an employee is granted the right to opt out of a reasonable arbitration provision, the employee should not be permitted to later challenge the provision as unconscionable. In this case, the employment contract barred the use of classwide arbitration to adjudicate employment claims. Instead, the employment contract required employees to use individual arbitration but granted employees the right to opt out within thirty days of signing the contract. In its brief, NCLC argued that finding unconscionability on the facts of this case would conflict with the strong preference shown for arbitration under federal law.