Amanda DeMatteis: Hi, Josh.
Josh Goodbaum: Hi, Amanda. What are we going to talk about today?
DeMatteis: I understand that Governor Lamont signed a new law in early June of 2026 that may impact Connecticut employees. What can you tell us?
Goodbaum: That’s right, Amanda. This isn’t an employment law so much as a law about the procedures of arbitration, which is important to employees and to employment lawyers because so many employment disputes in Connecticut end up in arbitration.
The law is Senate Bill 2692, and it says that if an arbitration is going to be conducted in the state of Connecticut, then the arbitrator needs to be a lawyer admitted to practice in the state of Connecticut, unless both parties agree otherwise in writing.
You can certainly understand the impulse here.
Most Connecticut arbitrations are going to involve Connecticut law, and it’s important that an arbitrator be someone who understands Connecticut law and understands local Connecticut legal practice, but this can also raise significant issues.
There are major arbitration providers located around the country that are often selected by Connecticut and national employers that don’t have any, or if any, very few arbitrators who are admitted to practice in Connecticut.
I’m thinking especially of JAAMS, Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services, which is a major arbitration outfit, and as far as I know, has very few, if any, lawyers who are admitted to practice in Connecticut. This law leaves some important questions unanswered, Amanda.
Number one, what happens for a Connecticut employee who has an arbitration clause that selects a forum other than Connecticut? Can the Connecticut law require that there be a Connecticut arbitrator in that case, or would the law of another state apply in that case?
And number 2, what happens if one party objects to the arbitrator, but the arbitrator who’s not admitted in Connecticut, wants to go forward anyway? Can that party go to court to object to the arbitrator? Keep in mind that most arbitration agreements say that the procedure of the arbitration is entirely up to the arbitrator, and that it’s generally not appropriate to go to court to get the court to try to be involved in the procedures for the arbitration.
So there are some open questions here, but overall this is something that’s going to restrict the availability of arbitrators in Connecticut, and that’s something that employees and employment lawyers really want to pay attention to.
DeMatteis: We see arbitration agreements almost too much, Josh. So this law is really going to have an impact for Connecticut employees and how they resolve disputes that they have with their employers. Thank you so much for this valuable information and thank you for watching. We’ll see you next time.