Alabama District Court Enforces Electronic Arbitration Agreement

Arbitration Electronic Signatures

On October 13, the Northern District of Alabama entered an order compelling an employer and employee to arbitration where the employer demonstrated the existence of an electronic arbitration agreement. Yearwood v. Dolgencorp, No. 6:15-cv-00898-LSC, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 138993 (N.D. Ala. Oct. 13, 2015). The employee provided an affidavit denying ever having seen or signed such a form electronically. The court held that under the Alabama version of the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act, the burden of proving attribution of the signature to the employee falls on the employer. In support of its motion to compel arbitration, the employer offered evidence demonstrating its practice of requiring employees to complete a series of electronic forms upon hiring, which included the arbitration agreement. The employer also produced evidence demonstrating that the arbitration agreement was executed by someone using the employee’s unique access credentials (user ID and password) on the employer’s online hiring system, and that the employee’s password had to be re-entered at the time of signing. The employer also produced evidence that the employee agreed to use the electronic signature system and agreed to keep her password confidential. Weighed against the employer's proof of its process and records demonstrating execution, the court held that employee’s blanket denial by affidavit was insufficient to rebut the proof of attribution. The court found that the signature on the arbitration agreement was attributable to the employee and ordered the parties to arbitrate.