9th Circuit Extends Deadline in Verizon’s Arbitration Decision Appeal

The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted the unopposed motion of 27 plaintiff-appellees for a 65-day extension to Feb. 24 to file their answering brief in Verizon’s appeal of a district court’s denial of its motion to compel arbitration (see 2212020005), said a clerk’s order Friday (docket 22-16020). The deadline extension is justified by the number of “cutting-edge issues raised in the appeal,” said the successful motion. The plaintiff-appellees don’t deny that arbitration terms existed in their customer agreements when they signed up for Verizon service, but U.S. District Judge Edward Chen for Northern California in San Francisco agreed with them in a July 1 order that the arbitration provisions were unconscionable and unenforceable.