Ferguson v. Countrywide Credit Industries, Inc.

As a condition of employment, Ferguson (plaintiff) had to sign an arbitration agreement with Countrywide (defendant) requiring arbitration for the discrimination, harassment, and tort claims employees typically bring, while exempting the intellectual-property, unfair-competition, and trade-secret claims Countrywide itself was more likely to bring. The agreement made Ferguson pay a filing fee, split arbitrator fees with Countrywide (which could run into the thousands of dollars), and limited any deposition of a Countrywide representative to four designated topics without a matching limit on employee depositions. Ferguson later sued Countrywide and her supervisor for sexual harassment and retaliation; the district court found the arbitration agreement unconscionable and denied Countrywide's motion to compel arbitration.