In April 2008, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong's September 2007 order, which had prohibited the arbitrating plaintiffs from proceeding as a group. The appeals court sent the issue back to Arbitrator Bruce Meyerson, with instructions to exercise his full authority under the arbitration agreements to decide for himself whether the arbitration agreements prohibited group arbitration. Arbitrator Meyerson is now considering the parties' arguments on the issue, and will have a hearing on July 17, 2008 before issuing a new award. We hope he will rule that the agreements allow all arbitrating plaintiffs to participate in the San Francisco arbitration and that the arbitration should get underway promptly.

In the federal court litigation, the judge has now set trial for March 23, 2009, for those plaintiffs who did not have enforceable arbitration agreements with Cintas. The case has been reassigned for trial to Magistrate Judge Richard Seeborg in San Jose. We are now completing discovery relevant to the trial of the litigating plaintiffs' claims.

We expect Cintas to resume its efforts to have various plaintiffs dismissed from the litigation for various legal and factual reasons. If you are contacted by a member of our legal team for information relating to the case, please respond promptly, to help us develop the information we need to present your case most effectively.

On June 16, 2008, the United States Supreme Court refused Cintas' request for review of an April order from the Court of Appeals, which deferred any ruling on Cintas' dozens of lawsuits against around the country against its SSRs. Those cases have all been stayed, which means that for the foreseeable future, Cintas will not be able to proceed with its efforts to use those cases to force its SSRs to arbitrate their claims individually.

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As always, if you are contacted by a member of our litigation team with questions about this case or your claims, it is extremely important for you to respond promptly to any such requests. The information we obtain from you is critical for us to be able to pursue your claims. Also, please keep our legal team informed of any changes to your address, telephone number, or email address, so that we can contact you. Use the contact form on this website to update your contact information.