The lower court skipped one step - and it cost UPS its arbitration win
A lower court ordered a UPS seasonal driver into arbitration. A federal appeals court just ruled the judge skipped a step that mattered.
On June 9, 2026, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled for a former UPS driver in a decision that employers relying on mandatory arbitration will want to read closely.
The court granted Rebecca Orr's petition for a writ of mandamus - a rare order that tells a lower court to fix an error - and required the US District Court for the Central District of California to vacate its order forcing Orr to arbitrate her individual claims against UPS.
Orr worked as a Seasonal Support Driver for UPS in late 2023, collecting packages from other drivers and delivering them to their final stops. When she applied through an online UPS portal, she signed an "Arbitration Agreement/Seasonal Hiring Agreement."
She later sued in California state court, raising five state law claims - several on behalf of three proposed classes - including an allegation that UPS failed to pay Seasonal Support Drivers their required "reporting time pay." She then added a sixth claim under California's Private Attorneys General Act, or PAGA. UPS moved the case to federal court and asked the judge to compel arbitration.
The judge did exactly that, sending Orr's individual claims to arbitration while pausing the class claims. But the court refused to decide one threshold question: whether the...
PORTLAND, Ore. - Two men face federal charges for allegedly defrauding Medicare, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Veterans Health Administration and private insurance companies out...