Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Mitri v. Arnel Management Co. (Cal. Ct. App. - Dec. 12, 2007)

Client: "One of our employees just sued us for harassment and discrimination."

Lawyer: "Gotcha. But you make all your employees sign arbitration clauses, right?"
Client: "Yep. We're no fools. It's even in the employee handbook; everyone signs an arbitration agreement."

Lawyer: "Great. Just fax me over a copy of this employee's signed arbitration agreement and we'll move to compel arbitration."

Client: "Uh, well, that may be a tiny bit of a problem. I mean, we're sure this employee signed a copy of an arbitration agreement, because everyone does. But we can't find his. For some unknown reason, it's just not in the file."

Lawyer: "No problem. We'll just have you testify that everyone signs one, that his just must have been lost, refer to what's in the employee handbook (which confirms that everyone signs), and we'll get the thing to arbitration."

Justice Fybel: "No you won't."

Lesson: Keep those documents in the file. They're important. Duh.