Q. Can my employees pursue class actions via arbitration?
A. On April 24, the U.S. Supreme Court issued the latest in its line of recent decisions hostile to class action arbitration. In Lamps Plus, Inc. v. Varela, the Court stated that merely showing ambiguity in an arbitration clause is not enough to create an agreement between the parties to allow for classwide arbitration of their disputes. Instead, the parties’ agreement to arbitrate claims in a class action format must be express. Not silent, not ambiguous — express.