Ninth Circuit Stops Class-Wide Abuse of Adverse Arbitration Decisions in Win for Employers
On April 1, 2026, the Ninth Circuit in O’Dell v. Aya Healthcare Services, Inc. , 171 F.4th 1173 (9th Cir. 2026) held that the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) protects employers from plaintiffs’ attempts to use inconsistent decisions about the enforceability of an arbitration agreement to invalidate all arbitration agreements in a class action . The court explained that extending a small number of arbitration rulings to bar arbitration for other employees would undermine the individualized nature of arbitration and conflict with the FAA’s strong policy favoring enforcement of arbitration agreements as written . This decision is a win for California employers. It generally reinforces the enforceability of arbitration agreements in a class action context and prevents isolated arbitration enforcement losses from automatically voiding the agreements for the rest of the putative class. Key Facts Former employees of a travel nursing agency filed a putative class action (not yet able certifie...