Alston & Bird has received approval to move claims from a former employee to arbitration. Joanne Halvorson, who was terminated after refusing to take the Covid-19 vaccine, alleged in her complaint that her dismissal constituted religious and disability bias.
The law firm had initially moved the case to the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia before seeking to compel arbitration. Halvorson contended that the arbitration agreement she signed was not valid because the firm allegedly only initialed the agreement once, whereas she had initialed it twice.
Georgia law requires that signatories of arbitration agreements adhere to certain formalities. However, the federal judge ruled in favor of Alston & Bird, determining that the arbitration agreement was indeed valid. This decision mandates that the dispute be resolved through arbitration rather than court proceedings.
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