California courts are often eager to find weak spots that can provide an excuse to deny arbitration

While acknowledging that California courts have recognized that arbitration agreements bearing only the employee’s signature without a corresponding signature from the employer can still be valid, the Court found that, in this case, the plain text of the arbitration agreement required a signature from both parties to be effective. 

In Pich v. LaserAway, LLC et al, the court affirmed the trial court’s denial of the employer’s motion to compel a former employee’s representative wage-and-hour suit to arbitration because the arbitration agreement in question was signed only by the employee—not the employer. https://natlawreview.com/article/does-arbitration-agreement-require-employers-signature-read-fine-print