Representative Matters
Federal District Court grants Simmonds & Narita’s motion to compel arbitration of putative class action
The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California granted Simmonds & Narita’s motion to compel arbitration of a putative class action that asserted claims against a debt buyer under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1692, et seq., California Rosenthal Act, Cal. Civ. Code § 1788, et seq. and California’s Unfair Competition Law, Bus. & Prof. Code § 17200, et seq. The court agreed that plaintiff’s challenges to the validity of the arbitration agreement were for the arbitrator, not the court, to decide. The court also rejected the plaintiff’s argument that the agreement was unconscionable. Procedural unconscionability was not present, the court held, merely because the agreement was provided to the plaintiff in English when he spoke only Spanish. Moreover, the agreement contained an opt out provision. Nor was the agreement substantively unconscionable.