Arbitration, PAGA: For Now PAGA Still Provides Exception To Mandatory Arbitration

Two Recent California Cases Uphold The Rule In Iskanian.

        California courts have repeatedly ruled, following Iskanian, that employees cannot be forced to arbitrate PAGA representative claims. Two recent published opinions follow the Iskanian rule. Wing v. Chico Healthcare & Wellness Centre, No.  B310232 (2/5  4/28/22) (affirming order denying motion to compel arbitration); Leshane v. Tracy VW, Inc. No. C093881 (3rd Dist. 4/29/22) (affirming trial court court's denial of defendants’ petition to compel arbitration).

        We are waiting to learn what SCOTUS will decide about the rule in Iskanian. The court has already heard argument in Viking Cruises, Inc. v. Moriana, and a majority of the justices seem likely to reject the Iskanian rule in cases where the Federal Arbitration Act governs. See my post dated 1/7/22.

        COMMENT: If SCOTUS rejects the rule in Iskanian, it does not follow that the California courts must follow SCOTUS in those cases where the parties are not engaged in interstate commerce, and therefore the Federal Arbitration Act does not apply.