Originally from Alternatives to the High Cost of Litigation

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The conflict over workplace conflict
resolution is officially over. For now.
The May 21 5-4 U.S. Supreme
Court decision backing employers’ mandatory
waivers by workers on using class processes to
resolve employment disputes ends six years of
uncertainty on the role of alternative dispute resolution
in settling employee-company conflict.
But while Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, No.
16-285 (available at https://bit.ly/2rWzAE8)
resolves the question of whether employers
can require individualized arbitration, the
result isn’t sitting quietly.
Consumer advocates, labor leaders, and
attorneys who represent employees in all types and categories of jobs against their present
and former bosses weren’t expected to like
the decision, which some Court observers
believed was a fait accompli in the
employers’ favor after the oral argument,
which kicked off the Court’s
2017-2018 term on Oct. 2.
But in addition, a broad spectrum
of arbitration users beyond the plaintiffs’
bar is cautious in addressing the
future of the process in the wake of the majority
opinion by Justice Neil Gorsuch.