Arbitration Whack-A-Mole: The Federal Policy Favoring Arbitration Hammers the Rights of Individual Employees

Abstract

In a country that protects the plaintiff\u27s right to a day in court, it only seems natural that Sally should have the opportunity to take her cause to the courthouse. But the strong fedral presumption that supports the enforcement of arbitration provisions is like a hammber that pushes plaintiffs like Sally and those if Huffman into the arbitration arena. In Huffman, the Sixth Circuit rescued an employwer from an ambiguous arbitration provision contained in the employer-drafted employment agreement and enforced the arbitration provision as one of the provisions to survive expiration of the contract, even though it was not listed in the survival clause