Handwritten signature makes agreement easier to enforce

Many California employers ask incoming and existing employees to agree in advance to arbitrate any employment-related disputes and give up the right to bring such claims in court. Employees often are asked to “sign” these arbitration agreements electronically, which is administratively easier than having the employee sign it in their handwriting.

Last month in Iyere v. Wise Auto Group, the California Court of Appeal compelled three former Wise Auto employees to arbitrate their wrongful termination and 24 other employment-related claims against the company largely because each employee had signed the binding arbitration agreement in their own handwriting.

Signature shows former employees agreed to arbitrate

Wise Auto had the initial burden of proving the employees actually had agreed to arbitrate their claims. In resisting Wise Auto’s motion to compel arbitration, the plaintiff-employees signed sworn declarations that: (1) they did not recall ever reading or signing the arbitration agreement; (2) the arbitration agreement was part of a “large stack of documents” they were rushed to sign on their first day of work; (3) no one explained the agreement; and (4) they would not have signed the agreement had they known they were giving up their right to file a lawsuit against Wise Auto and that they were free to opt out of the agreement. None of the employees claimed their signature had been forged.

The court of appeal, however, held that an employee who handwrites his or her signature on an arbitration agreement cannot avoid arbitrating an employment dispute by saying he or she cannot recall doing so. The court observed “there is no conflict between [the employees] having signed a docu