Court Opinion

ID: 9517910
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 00:36:34.107142+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:25:47.715625
License: Public Domain

FERREN, Acting Chief Judge,
concurring:
I join in the opinion for the court because I can discern no basis in the Human Rights Act or in its legislative history for concluding that the Council of the District of Columbia intended to bar voluntary agreements to arbitrate employment discrimination claims. I am concerned, however, that such agreements could, in some circumstances, amount to contracts of adhesion forced on employees, with the result that enforcement of the arbitration provision would be unconscionable. In such circumstances, the employee may well have a basis for asking the court to void the arbitration clause and to permit a jury trial on the discrimination claim. Nothing we say today precludes that possibility.