Keller Postman Represents 5,000+ DoorDash Delivery Workers in Mass Arbitration

Keller Postman represented more than 5,000 DoorDash delivery workers in fighting their misclassification by DoorDash as independent contractors—including through pursuing individual arbitration claims instead of a class action against DoorDash, as required by the terms of the company’s arbitration agreement.

On November 15, 2020, Keller Postman filed a petition in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to compel arbitration against DoorDash, claiming that the company refused to pay fees for more than 5,000 of our clients’ cases.

On February 3, 2020, Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ordered the company to arbitrate with more than 5,000 of our clients. In his order, Judge Alsup further berated DoorDash for “forc[ing] arbitration clauses… [and] class-action waivers” on its workers, and then “resort[ing] to a class-wide lawsuit, the very device it denied to the workers, to avoid its duty to arbitrate.”

In Abernathy v. DoorDash, our clients were simply vindicating their rights through a process the companies designed and to which they forced our clients to agree. In bringing the resources necessary to arbitrate claims at a large scale, we provide access to justice for thousands of employees who are contractually barred from participating in a class action. Exploited employees can now turn the arbitration game against employers. And judges now call companies out for their hypocrisy when they object to the terms of the arbitration process they insisted on in the first place.

In terms of litigation strategies that disrupt the status quo, Keller Postman’s arbitration approach is one of the most significant recent developments in civil litigation.