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Employment Rulings in the Ninth Circuit

The Ninth Circuit covers the federal courts in Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. The rulings below come from the circuit's court of appeals and the federal trial courts within it.

Of the 5,351 published rulings we track here (19672026), the breakdowns below show how they were decided. They describe published opinions only — not the odds of any particular situation.

How These Rulings Ended

Of the 5,351 published rulings we track in the Ninth Circuit.

Defendant Win
1,800 (34%)
Dismissed
1,160 (22%)
Mixed Result
911 (17%)
Plaintiff Win
723 (14%)
Remanded
518 (10%)
Settlement
239 (4%)

What Happens at Each Stage

A workplace lawsuit moves through stages, and a ruling can end it at any of them. Here is where the 5,218 rulings we could classify by stage were decided.

Appeal
2,095 (40%)

A higher court reviewing an earlier decision. Many published opinions come from this stage, after a lot has already happened in the case.

Summary judgment
639 (12%)

A ruling where the judge decides the case — or part of it — without a trial, because one side argues the key facts are not in dispute. For workers, getting past this step is often the biggest hurdle.

Of the 639 summary-judgment rulings here, 379 ended the case in the employer’s favor and 259 let the worker’s claims continue; the rest resolved in other ways.

Motion to dismiss
2,007 (38%)

An early request — usually by the employer — to throw the case out before any evidence is gathered.

Trial verdict
83 (2%)

A judge or jury heard the evidence and reached a decision. Relatively few disputes get this far.

Settlement / consent decree
217 (4%)

The two sides resolved the dispute by agreement, sometimes with court approval. Most settlements are private and never show up in published opinions.

Default judgment
95 (2%)

A decision entered because one side did not respond to the case at all.

Other rulings
82 (2%)

Procedural decisions and orders that do not fit the main stages above.

States in This Circuit

Browse rulings from courts in each state the Ninth Circuit covers.

Recent Rulings in the Ninth Circuit

Garretson

Nov 27, 2019N.D. Cal.Plaintiff Win

Oregon Laborers-Employers Health & Welfare Trust Fund v. Baseline Industrial Construction, Inc.

Nov 26, 2019D. Or.Plaintiff Win

Miriam Maldonado v. Ginza Ramen, Inc.

Nov 26, 2019C.D. Cal.Mixed Result

Olivo

Nov 25, 2019S.D. Cal.Settlement

De Leon v. Ricoh USA, Inc.

Nov 25, 2019N.D. Cal.Settlement

Estorga

Nov 25, 2019N.D. Cal.Mixed Result

Ser Lao v. H&M Hennes & Mauritz, L.P.

Nov 25, 2019N.D. Cal.Mixed Result

Dwain Lammey v. Home Depot U.S.A., Inc.

Nov 25, 2019C.D. Cal.Defendant Win

Locals 302 and 612 of the International Union of Operating Engineers Construction Industry Health and Security Fund v. Barry Civil Construction Inc

Nov 22, 2019W.D. Wash.Mixed Result

Goro

Nov 22, 2019S.D. Cal.Dismissed

Adam Acosta v. District Council 36 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO

Nov 22, 2019C.D. Cal.Remanded

Adelfo Cerame, Jr. v. 11747 Bellagio, LLC

Nov 22, 2019C.D. Cal.Plaintiff Win

Alex Guadarrama v. Sasan Chadorbaff

Nov 22, 20199th CircuitDismissed

Schwendeman

Nov 20, 2019N.D. Cal.Defendant Win

Gascon

Nov 20, 2019N.D. Cal.Dismissed

Brian Whitaker v. Five Guys Operations, LLC

Nov 20, 2019C.D. Cal.Remanded

Juvenal Taboada-Bahena v. William Barr

Nov 20, 20199th CircuitDismissed

Redwind

Nov 19, 2019D. Or.Defendant Win

Boden

Nov 19, 2019D. IdahoPlaintiff Win

Raymundo Garcia-Gaday v. William Barr

Nov 19, 20199th CircuitRemanded

Michael Rhambo v. Nghia Tang

Nov 18, 2019C.D. Cal.Dismissed

James Rutherford v. Johnny Lucatero

Nov 18, 2019C.D. Cal.Mixed Result

James Rutherford v. Sharon Kelsch

Nov 18, 2019C.D. Cal.Plaintiff Win

Hixon

Nov 15, 2019E.D. Cal.Dismissed

Villarreal

Nov 15, 2019E.D. Cal.Remanded

Brunner, Jr. v. Lyft, Inc.

Nov 14, 2019N.D. Cal.Remanded

Hudson

Nov 13, 2019S.D. Cal.Settlement

Alabsi

Nov 13, 2019N.D. Cal.Settlement

Pantoja

Nov 13, 2019N.D. Cal.Remanded

David Hester v. PS Orangeco, Inc.

Nov 13, 2019C.D. Cal.Defendant Win

Mohammed

Nov 12, 2019N.D. Cal.Remanded

Johnson v. Solara, LLC

Nov 11, 2019D. AlaskaDefendant Win

Smith v. Kaiser Foundation Hospitals

Nov 7, 2019S.D. Cal.Dismissed

Reynosa-Juarez

Nov 7, 2019N.D. Cal.Defendant Win

U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Bay Club Fairbanks Ranch, LLC

Nov 6, 2019S.D. Cal.Plaintiff Win

Gordon

Nov 6, 2019N.D. Cal.Defendant Win

Yeomans

Nov 6, 2019N.D. Cal.Defendant Win

Noroma

Nov 6, 2019N.D. Cal.Settlement

Brian Whitaker v. Birds Bar and Cafe, LLC

Nov 6, 2019C.D. Cal.Remanded

(PS) Awadan v. Reebok Corporate Headquarter

Nov 6, 2019E.D. Cal.Remanded

Patel

Nov 6, 2019E.D. Cal.Remanded

Gomez

Nov 6, 2019E.D. Cal.Mixed Result

State of Nevada v. Gilbert

Nov 1, 2019D. Nev.Dismissed

Essmaker

Nov 1, 2019D. IdahoDefendant Win

Cavada

Nov 1, 2019S.D. Cal.Defendant Win

Arakji

Nov 1, 2019N.D. Cal.Dismissed

Jo Ann Gutierrez Bejar v. SOS International LLC

Nov 1, 2019C.D. Cal.Plaintiff Win

Frausto

Oct 31, 2019N.D. Cal.Mixed Result

Kannan

Oct 30, 2019N.D. Cal.Mixed Result

Sanchez

Oct 30, 2019E.D. Cal.Defendant Win

Showing 3,6513,700 of 5,351 rulings · Page 74 of 108

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These figures summarize publicly available published court opinions only. Published opinions over-represent summary-judgment rulings (decisions made without a trial) and appeals, because those are the stages where judges most often write formal opinions. Most workplace disputes settle privately and never appear here at all. A ruling’s outcome reflects many case-specific factors and is not a prediction for any other situation. Read more about how we source and classify rulings.

Data sourced from public federal court records via CourtListener.com. Case outcomes extracted using AI analysis. This information is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. The classification of outcomes and case stages is based on automated analysis and may not reflect the full scope of each case.