YourMechanic, Inc. v. Jonathan Provost

This Petition for Writ of Certiorari (“Petition”) seeks review of an issue of first impression before this Court involving the irreconcilable conflicts between California courts’ interpretation and application of the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) and California’s Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 (Labor Code section 2698, et seq.) (“PAGA”) that, like a class or collective action, allows aggrieved employees to seek monetary recovery on a representative basis on behalf of other employees. Petitioner YourMechanic, Inc. (“YourMechanic” or “Petitioner”) and Respondent Jonathan Provost (“Provost” or “Respondent”) entered into a binding and enforceable arbitration agreement under the FAA. That agreement requires not only bilateral arbitration of all claims but also arbitration of all threshold issues – including disputes over arbitrability and whether Respondent was properly classified as an independent contractor. Nevertheless, Respondent sued Petitioner in court and asserted a representative claim on behalf of hundreds of others, contending the pre-dispute waiver of his representative PAGA claim is unenforceable under California law. California courts at all levels hold that such a pre-dispute waiver in an arbitration agreement violates California public policy. They have also held that this state law-created prohibition of pre-dispute waivers is not preempted by the FAA. California’s courts have expanded this flawed reasoning in this case, holding that a clear and unmistakable