Court rules one harassment claim can block your entire arbitration agreement

Bruce also had a separate set of grievances unrelated to harassment. She suffered from conditions that required her to take sedatives to sleep, which frequently caused her to arrive late to work. She alleged that Adams and Reese placed her on a corrective action plan, failed to meaningfully engage with her requests for a reasonable accommodation, and terminated her on May 11, 2023, while she was still working with her doctor to communicate her medical needs to the firm. 

When she filed suit, the firm pointed to an arbitration agreement she had signed when she joined – a standard arrangement requiring all employment disputes to go through private arbitration rather than the courts. Adams and Reese argued that even if her harassment claim could proceed, her disability-related claims should be sent to arbitration as the agreement required. It also argued that the harassment claim itself should be thrown out for lack of sufficient detail. 

The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit rejected both arguments. 

On the harassment claim, the court found that Bruce did not need to provide a play-by-play account of every offensive comment to keep her case alive at this stage. The overall picture painted in her complaint – repeated sexualized remarks by a supervisor, made in team meetings and work conversations, that she described as persistent throughout her employment – was enough to reasonably conclude she may have endured a hostile work environment. Demanding a more detailed account at this point, the court said, would hold employees to a stricter standard than the law actually requires, even at trial. 

The more consequential ruling, however, was on the arbitration agreement. The court interpreted a 2021 federal law – the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act – and found that its protection extends to the entire lawsuit, not just the harassment claim. The law blocks enforcement of arbitration agreements with respect to a “case” involving sexual harassment allegations. The court held that a “case” means everything in the lawsuit. Once a harassment claim is plausibly alleged and survives early challenge, the whole proceeding stays in court – including disability claims and any other claims that form part of the same lawsuit.