Can I Sue If I Signed an Arbitration Agreement?

You can sue if you signed an arbitration agreement, but only in specific situations. Federal law starts from a strong presumption that the agreement will be enforced, so walking into court usually means the other side files a motion to send you back to arbitration. Whether you stay in court depends on whether you can point to a recognized reason the agreement should not apply: a contract defense like unconscionability or fraud, a federal statute that carves your claim out, a scope problem, or conduct by the other side that gave up the right to arbitrate.

The Default Rule Under the Federal Arbitration Act

The Federal Arbitration Act says a written agreement to arbitrate is “valid, irrevocable, and enforceable,” and that rule binds both federal and state courts.¹ Judges do not second-guess your decision to sign one.

The same statute leaves one door open. An arbitration agreement can be struck down on “such grounds as exist at law or in equity for the revocation of any contract.”¹ Anything that can void an ordinary contract can void an arbitration clause. Most successful challenges start here.

Contract Defenses That Can Void the Agreement

Unconscionability

Unconscionability is the most common defense, and it has two sides. Procedural unconscionability asks how the agreement was formed. Was it take-it-or-leave-it? Was the arbitration language buried in fine print? Was the power imbalance extreme? Substantive unconscionability asks about the terms themselves. Does only one side get to demand arbitration? Are damages capped so low that the claim is not worth bringing? Are the fees prohibitive?

Most courts require some of both, though many apply a sliding scale where a lot of one can make up for a little of the other. When an agreement is plainly one-sided on its face, some courts shift the burden to the drafter to justify it.

Fraud or Duress

If you were lied to about what the agreement contained, or threatened into signing, the agreement can be voided. This surfaces most often in employment settings where a worker is told to sign immediately or lose the offer, with no chance to review or consult counsel. The fraud has to relate to the arbitration clause itself, not just some other part of the deal.

Scope

An arbitration clause covers only the disputes it was written to cover. A clause tucked into a purchase agreement might reach warranty disputes and say nothing about a personal injury claim involving the same product. Read the clause carefully before assuming it captures your dispute.

Waiver by the Other Side

A company can lose the right to enforce arbitration by acting as though it chose litigation. In 2022, the Supreme Court held that waiver of the right to arbitrate is judged the same way as waiver of any other contractual right, meaning intentional relinquishment through conduct, and you no longer need to show you were prejudiced by the delay.² A defendant that files motions, takes discovery, and litigates for months before suddenly remembering its arbitration clause may have waived it.

The Delegation-Clause Trap

Many modern arbitration agreements contain a delegation clause. It says the arbitrator, not a judge, decides whether the agreement itself is enforceable. Miss this detail and your unconscionability or fraud argument may never reach a courtroom.

In Rent-A-Center, West, Inc. v. Jackson, the Supreme Court held that if you want a court to decide enforceability, you have to challenge the delegation clause specifically. Arguing that the overall agreement is unfair is not enough.³ Challenge only “the agreement as a whole” and the court treats the delegation clause as valid and hands the entire question to the arbitrator. If your agreement has a delegation clause, your filings need to name it and attack it directly.

How the Agreement Was Formed Online

If you agreed to arbitration by using a website or app, formation itself may be your best argument. Courts distinguish sharply between types of digital consent. Clickwrap agreements, where you check a box or click “I agree” after being shown the terms, are almost always enforced. Browsewrap agreements, where a company argues you agreed just by using the site, are much harder to enforce because you may never have seen the terms.

Most real disputes sit between those poles. In early 2026, the Sixth Circuit set out a four-factor test for hybrid situations, looking at whether the page was uncluttered enough for the terms to be noticed, whether the terms sat near the button the user clicked, whether font and color drew attention to the agreement, and whether the interaction was one where a reasonable person would expect contract terms. An arbitration clause buried behind layers of links on a cluttered signup page may not survive that analysis.

Claims Federal Law Shields From Arbitration

Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment

The Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act, signed on March 3, 2022, lets you take these claims to court even if you signed a pre-dispute arbitration agreement. It applies to any claim of sexual assault or sexual harassment that arose on or after that date.⁴

The choice belongs to the person alleging the misconduct. You can elect to void the arbitration agreement and proceed in court, and the law also overrides class action waivers for these claims. A court, not an arbitrator, decides whether the Act applies to your situation, even if the agreement contains a delegation clause.⁴ That last piece is what keeps the delegation-clause trap from swallowing the exemption.

Transportation Workers

The FAA itself exempts “contracts of employment of seamen, railroad employees, or any other class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce.” The Supreme Court in Southwest Airlines Co. v. Saxon held that the exemption turns on what a worker actually does, not the industry of the employer. A ramp supervisor who physically loaded and unloaded cargo on interstate flights qualified as a transportation worker even though Southwest is primarily a passenger airline.⁵ If your job involves directly moving goods across state or international borders, the FAA may not reach your arbitration agreement at all.

Other Employment Claims

Outside sexual misconduct and the transportation-worker exemption, the picture is harder. In Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, the Supreme Court held that arbitration agreements requiring individual proceedings must be enforced even for federal employment claims, including under the Fair Labor Standards Act.⁶ Wage theft, overtime, and most discrimination claims can be forced into individual arbitration when covered by a signed agreement. Some states have tried to carve out specific claims, like whistleblower retaliation or certain wage violations, but those state-level protections vary and face ongoing challenges. Broader federal bills to ban forced arbitration in employment and consumer disputes have been introduced repeatedly and have not passed.

Class Action Waivers and Mass Arbitration

Most current arbitration agreements include a class action waiver, and after Epic Systems those waivers are generally enforceable.⁶ For small individual claims, that can feel like the end of the road.

Mass arbitration has become the workaround. Instead of one class action, thousands of individuals each file separate arbitration claims at the same time. Because many agreements make the company pay most of the arbitration fees, cost pressure flips. A company that used its clause to block class actions ends up owing filing and administrative fees on thousands of individual cases. The American Arbitration Association and JAMS have both updated their rules to handle these waves, often using a bellwether process where a small group of representative cases is heard first and the results steer settlement of the rest.

How You Actually Raise This in Court

You start by filing the lawsuit. The arbitration agreement does not stop you from filing a complaint. The other side then raises the agreement as a defense, usually by filing a motion to compel arbitration under the FAA, asking the judge to halt the case and send it to arbitration.⁷

Your opposition to that motion is where the defenses go. Unconscionability, fraud, scope, waiver, a federal exemption, a formation problem — whatever applies. If there is a delegation clause, attack it specifically in the same filing. If the judge denies the motion, the lawsuit continues. If the judge grants it, the court will stay the case while arbitration proceeds.⁸

Expect an Appeal If You Win the First Round

The FAA sets up appeal rights asymmetrically. If a court denies a motion to compel, the defendant can appeal that ruling immediately, before the case ends. If the court grants the motion and sends you to arbitration, you generally cannot appeal until arbitration is finished.⁹

That imbalance shapes your timeline. When the defendant appeals a denial, the whole case freezes. The Supreme Court held in Coinbase, Inc. v. Bielski that the district court must automatically stay all proceedings while that appeal is pending.¹⁰ Even a winning challenge at the trial court can mean months or years of delay before the case moves. Plan for that from the start.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. Title 9 USC 2 – Validity, Irrevocability, and Enforcement of Agreements to Arbitrate
2
Supreme Court of the United States. Morgan v. Sundance Inc.
3
Justia Law. Rent-A-Center, West, Inc. v. Jackson, 561 US 63
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. Title 9 USC 402 – No Validity or Enforceability
5
Supreme Court of the United States. Southwest Airlines Co. v. Saxon
6
Supreme Court of the United States. Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. Title 9 USC 4 – Failure to Arbitrate Under Agreement; Petition to United States Court
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. Title 9 USC 3 – Stay of Proceedings Where Issue Therein Referable to Arbitration
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. Title 9 USC 16 – Appeals
10
Supreme Court of the United States. Coinbase Inc. v. Bielski