Interpretation of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) has been the
topic of both recent and pending cases on the Supreme Court's
docket. On May 21, 2018, the Court ruled in Epic Systems v. Lewis, 138 S. Ct.
1612, that companies can prohibit workers from using class-action
litigation to resolve workplace disputes, where individual
arbitration clauses are contained with the underlying agreements.
In the upcoming term, the Court will consider two additional cases.
On October 3, 2018, oral argument will be held in New Prime
Inc. v. Oliveira, No. 17-340, addressing: (1) whether a court
or an arbitrator must determine the applicability of Section 1 of
the FAA, which applies only to "contracts of employment;"
and (2) whether this section would apply to independent contractor
agreements. On October 29, 2018, oral argument will be held in the
case of Lamps Plus, Inc. v. Varela, No. 17-988, as to
whether the FAA precludes a state-law interpretation of an
arbitration agreement that
