Wage Law

Code of Civil Procedure § 1281.2 requires a party moving to compel arbitration to allege the existence of a written agreement to arbitrate. Must a trial court deny a petition to compel arbitration where the moving party fails to allege the existence of a written agreement containing an arbitration clause? Of course. Brodke v. Alphatec Spine, Inc. (2008) __ Cal.App.4th __.

The gist of the case: it's not enough to merely point out that the plaintiffs allege such an agreement exists.

the evidence offered by defendants to prove the existence of a written agreement to arbitrate consisted solely of counsel's declaration attaching a copy of plaintiffs' complaint, which in turn attached a copy of the Brodke agreement. In short, defendants did not allege, or attempt to prove, that defendants contended an agreement to arbitrate existed - only that plaintiffs alleged the existence of an agreement.

If you want to read the whole thing, you can get a pdf or word version of the opinion from the court's website.