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Five Takeaways for California Employers From the Ninth Circuit’s Arbitration Ruling in O’Dell V. Aya Healthcare Services

On April 1, 2026, the Ninth Circuit reversed a Southern District ruling in O’Dell v. Aya Healthcare, rejecting the use of non‑mutual offensive collateral estoppel to invalidate hundreds of arbitration agreements. The court held that each arbitration contract must be evaluated on its own terms, preserving the Federal Arbitration Act’s consent principle. The decision underscores the importance of delegation clauses and confirms that split arbitrator outcomes do not collapse an entire arbitration program. Employers are still vulnerable to substantive unconscionability challenges, prompting a need for comprehensive agreement audits.