Ramirez v. Charter Communications, Inc.

Summary

The court held that several provisions in Charter’s employment arbitration agreement were substantively unconscionable, including provisions lacking mutuality, shortening the time to assert FEHA claims, and authorizing potentially unlawful attorney-fee awards. It held that the discovery limits were not unconscionable because the arbitrator had authority to order additional discovery as needed to permit fair arbitration. The court reversed and remanded for the Court of Appeal to reconsider severance under a qualitative, totality-of-the-circumstances analysis, and held that this approach does not violate the Federal Arbitration Act.