Mandatory Arbitration for Benefit Plan Documents – Prudent or Problematic?

In Dorman v. Charles Schwab Corp., the Ninth Circuit held that an ERISA plan document that included a mandatory individual arbitration provision could be enforced, overruling its own prior precedent because of recent pro-arbitration decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court. In doing so, the Ninth Circuit upheld an arbitration provision that provided that any claim or dispute arising out of or related to the plan would be settled by binding arbitration and had to be conducted on an individual, not a class or collective, basis.