D.R. Horton Who? Ninth Circuit Sends Claims to Individual Arbitration After Class Certification Below

Last week, on August 21, 2013, the Ninth Circuit joined the chorus of courts declining to follow the National Labor Relations Board’s controversial D.R. Horton decision. 

Richards v. Ernst & Young LLP [here] held that wage-and-hour claims already litigated for years against Ernst & Young and certified as a class action by the district court must be arbitrated individually in accordance with a pre-dispute arbitration agreement, thus undercutting the D.R. Horton viewpoint that employees have a non-waivable right to pursue statutory wage-and-hour claims on a class or collective basis.  Richards also continues the recent string of decisions we summarized [here] enforcing Ernst & Young’s individual-arbitration program, including the Second Circuit’s August 9, 2013 decision in Sutherland v. Ernst & Young LLP.

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