After years of appellate cases and several rulings holding California employers to the very strict payment standards of the California Arbitration Act (CAA), the California Supreme Court has, for the first time, addressed whether provisions of the CAA are preempted by the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). In Hohenshelt v. Superior Court of Los Angeles County, the Court ultimately held that Code of Civil Procedure § 1281.98 remains valid and enforceable. Nevertheless, the decision represents a meaningful victory for employers because the Court rejected a rigid application of the ...

A recent decision from California’s Fifth District Court of Appeal has deepened the divide among state courts on a critical issue under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA): whether a plaintiff may pursue representative claims for Labor Code violations they did not personally experience.  In CRST Expedited, Inc. v. Superior Court, the court concluded that such “headless” PAGA actions are permissible under the statute.  This holding appears to directly contradict the Second District Court of Appeal’s opinion in Leeper v. Shipt, Inc., which required a plaintiff to ...