SCOTUS, Again, Upholds Class-Action Waiver In An Arbitration Agreement

DIRECTV, Inc. v. Imburgia, decided on December 14, was pending in the California court system when the Supreme Court ruled in another case, AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion. After Concepcion, which said that state law invalidating class waivers was not enforceable, DIRECTV moved to compel arbitration. But that motion was denied by the trial court. A post from Barnes & Thornburg explains the trial court’s rationale, and why the Supreme Court in Imburgia would not accept it. This decision, writes attorney Adeyemi O. Adenrele, “highlights the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent emphasis on the protection of arbitration rights and signals that state courts’ continued hostility to arbitration provisions will not be tolerated.” It is also, he adds, a reminder that businesses “must take care in crafting arbitration and choice-of-law provisions to avoid the application of state law that could render the arbitration provision unenforceable.”