Second Circuit: EFAA voids arbitration agreements for all claims
Reported Second Circuit ruling holds the EFAA invalidates an arbitration agreement for every claim in a harassment case, not just the harassment claims themselves.
Per a Mayer Brown alert (the sole source in this cluster), the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has held that the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act does not merely sever an arbitration agreement as to a plaintiff's sexual harassment or assault claims — it invalidates the agreement for all claims raised in the same case. On that reading, a defendant confronted with a mixed complaint could be forced to litigate unrelated claims (wrongful discharge, wage, contract or statutory claims) in court, substantially rewriting the parties' dispute-resolution bargain after suit is filed. Second Circuit authority binds only New York, Connecticut and Vermont, and the breadth of the reasoning may draw en banc reconsideration, a certiorari petition or a circuit split; the alert does not indicate whether other circuits have adopted the same view. For clients, the near-term move is to audit employment and consumer arbitration clauses for hybrid-claim exposure and to confirm opt-out and severability design. Counsel should also track the opinion's actual scope before relying on this single-sourced summary.