In an effort to control litigation expenses, many employers have entered into mandatory arbitration agreements with their employees. These agreements sometimes proved to be less effective at limiting the costs associated with employee disputes than employers believed as some courts ruled that the mandatory agreements permitted an individual employee to arbitrate claims on behalf of a class of employees. On April 27, 2010, the Supreme Court issued a decision likely to substantially curtail the availability of class action arbitration. The Court ruled that imposing class arbitration on parties whose arbitration clauses are "silent" on that issue is inconsistent with the Federal Arbitration Act ("FAA"). For further information on the Supreme Court's ruling and its potential impact, see our Legal Alert here.