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Dispute Resolution and Arbitration

Journal of Dispute Resolution

2008

Employment

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Law

Elevator Company Goes Down: Mandatory Arbitration Provisions As Applied To Pending Civil Rights Claims In The Employment Context, Miranda Fleschert Jul 2008

Elevator Company Goes Down: Mandatory Arbitration Provisions As Applied To Pending Civil Rights Claims In The Employment Context, Miranda Fleschert

Journal of Dispute Resolution

In Goldsmith v. Bagby Elevator Company, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals carved a distinction in the employment context between mandatory predispute arbitration agreements and compulsory arbitration agreements as applied to pending claims of discrimination. In doing so, the court warns employers that any effort to terminate an employee's rights with respect to a pending Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") claim by instituting a mandatory arbitration provision will be seen as impermissibly retaliatory. Amid the backdrop of a case in which supervisors routinely called black employees "monkeys," "slaves," and "niggers," the court makes a well-meaning attempt at preserving employees' statutorily …


Knowing And Voluntary Standard: Is The Sixth Circuit's Test Enough To Level The Playing Field In Mandatory Employment Arbitration, The, Christina Semmer Jul 2008

Knowing And Voluntary Standard: Is The Sixth Circuit's Test Enough To Level The Playing Field In Mandatory Employment Arbitration, The, Christina Semmer

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Most courts require that for an individual to waive her Seventh Amendment right to trial by jury, she must knowingly and voluntarily waive that right. This heightened requirement for waiver exists because the United States Supreme Court has found that "[tlhe trial by jury is justly dear to the American people... and every encroachment upon it has been watched with great jealousy." Seemingly this standard should apply to mandatory employment arbitration agreements, as shifting the venue from the courts to the arbitral tribunal implicitly means waiving the right to trial by jury. However, because the Federal Arbitration Act ("FAA") requires …