A recent opinion out of the Texas 14th Court of Appeals has raised the bar for employers trying to enforce arbitration agreements electronically signed by employees. See Houston ANUSA, LLC d/b/a AutoNation USA Houston v. Shattenkirk, No. 14-20-00446-CV, 2023 WL 5437714 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] Aug. 24, 2023, no pet. h.).

Walter Shattenkirk was a general manager at an AutoNation car dealership. AutoNation claimed it terminated Shattenkirk’s employment for poor performance after putting him on a performance improvement plan, but he alleged that the termination was in retaliation for internally reporting alleged racist comments by other members of management. Shattenkirk subsequently filed a lawsuit against AutoNation for discrimination and retaliation. In response to his lawsuit, AutoNation filed a motion to compel arbitration under an arbitration agreement that AutoNation alleges Shattenkirk electronically executed at the time of hire using AutoNation’s human resources website. That agreement required arbitration of all disputes arising from Shattenkirk’s employment.

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