Summary: This article discusses a recent Sixth Circuit decision, Bruce v. Adams & Reese, which held that the EFAA prohibits employers from splitting up a case that has claims other than sexual harassment/assault. That is, if the case has claims exempted from arbitration under the EFAA, the whole case can go to court as one.
As previously discussed elsewhere in this blog, in 2022 the Biden administration signed the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act (“EFAA”) into law. This law made it clear that employers were no longer allowed to force employees to “hide” any sexual harassment and assault claims in private, confidential arbitration (where typically the decisionmaker is paid by the employer) instead of being allowed to go to court. This law was very important for workers because – beyond the fact employers could no longer conceal whether they had been sued for sexual harassment – in general arbitrations favor employers over employees. The law thus let workers keep their cases in more favorable venues, the courts.
One thing that old article noted that was less than clear was the question of what happened if an employee brought sexual harassment claims in addition to other legal claims – could those other claims be forcibly separated out and put into arbitration anyway? Some lower courts across the country have looked at the issue, but those are not binding precedents. On February 25, 2026, however, a Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals decision reached a definite answer – and that answer is no. In a case involving claims protected by the EFAA, everything can stay together in court.
Dallas Employment Lawyer Blog
