Arbitration Procedure

This Procedure applies to any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to the Agreements, the Encore platform, or a booking made through it, whether based in contract, tort, statute, or any other theory, between you and Encore. It does not cover the carve-outs in Section 6.

Before either of us starts arbitration, the party with the dispute must send the other an individualized, signed written notice of the dispute that includes: the party’s name, mailing address, and the email address on their Encore account; a description of the dispute and what happened; and the outcome requested. You may send your notice by mail to Encore Style LLC’s registered agent for service of process (the agent’s current name and address are published at encorestylist.com/legal), with a copy by email to hello@encorestylist.com (or, for stylists, legal@encorestylist.com as the Stylist Agreement specifies). Encore will send its notice to the email address on your account.

Within 60 days after the notice is received, you and Encore will personally meet and confer, by telephone or videoconference, in a good-faith effort to resolve the dispute. If a party is represented by counsel, counsel may participate in the conference, but the party must also personally attend and participate. Each conference addresses one party’s individual dispute; multiple claimants may not participate in the same conference. The parties then have 30 days from the conference to resolve the dispute informally. Most issues should end here.

Completing this informal resolution process is a condition precedent to starting arbitration, and an arbitrator shall dismiss any arbitration demand filed before the process is completed. All applicable statutes of limitation and fee deadlines are tolled while the parties engage in this process.

If informal resolution fails, the dispute is resolved by final and binding arbitration on an individual basis. You and Encore each waive the right to a jury trial and the right to participate in a class, collective, consolidated, or representative action, to the fullest extent permitted by law. The arbitrator may award the same individual relief a court could, but only to the individual party who sought it.

To the extent the law requires any claim under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) to proceed, your individual PAGA claim is resolved in arbitration on an individual basis, and any non-individual or representative PAGA claims are stayed pending that arbitration. If the waiver of representative PAGA claims is held unenforceable as to a particular claim, that waiver is severed only as to that claim, and the remainder of this Procedure, including the agreement to arbitrate on an individual basis and the class and collective action waiver, remains in full force.

• Administrator and rules. Arbitration is administered by JAMS under its rules in effect when the arbitration is filed; for consumer disputes, the JAMS Streamlined Arbitration Rules together with the JAMS Consumer Arbitration Minimum Standards. If JAMS is unavailable, the parties will select a comparable administrator (or a court will appoint one under 9 U.S.C. §5), and the arbitration will proceed under that administrator’s rules except as modified by this Procedure. If a stylist is finally determined to be Encore’s employee such that this Procedure is governed by Armendariz v. Foundation Health Psychcare Services, Inc. (2000) 24 Cal. 4th 83, then, as to that stylist’s claims, the JAMS Employment Arbitration Rules and Minimum Standards apply, and this Procedure is deemed to provide a neutral arbitrator, more than minimal discovery adequate to the claims, all types of relief that would be available in court, a written award sufficient for the judicial review the law allows, and payment by Encore of all costs and fees unique to arbitration, so that the stylist bears no expense the stylist would not bear if the claim were brought in court; any conflicting term is reformed to comply, and the agreement to arbitrate otherwise remains in full force.
• Location and format. For clients: the California county where you live, or remotely by video, at your choice. For stylists: the California county where you operate, or remotely. Where the JAMS Consumer Arbitration Minimum Standards apply, those Standards control over any conflicting provision of this Section, including any format, venue, or cost provision, and you keep any right they give you to an in-person hearing in your area. Subject to that, hearings are held by videoconference by default; an in-person hearing is held only if the parties agree or the arbitrator orders one, and any in-person hearing in a matter where more than $1,000,000 is in controversy is held in San Francisco County unless the parties agree otherwise or the JAMS consumer standards provide otherwise. Claims of $50,000 or less are decided on the documents alone, without a hearing, unless a party whose claim is subject to the JAMS consumer standards elects a hearing as those Standards allow or the arbitrator finds a hearing necessary in response to a party’s reasonable request.
• Fees and costs. Where the JAMS consumer standards apply, you pay no more than a filing fee comparable to the cost of filing the claim in court, and Encore pays the remaining arbitration fees and costs. Each side bears its own attorneys’ fees unless the law governing the claim provides otherwise or the arbitrator awards fees under Section 8. For any claim asserting unwaivable statutory rights, Encore pays all costs unique to arbitration, including the arbitrator’s fees and any administrative or forum fees, beyond a filing fee comparable to the cost of filing the claim in court, whether or not the JAMS consumer standards apply, and you will not be required to bear any expense, cost, or fee that you would not bear if the claim were brought in court. If Encore is required to pay fees or costs to the administrator to initiate or continue an arbitration, Encore will pay them within the time required by the administrator’s rules and by applicable law, including California Code of Civil Procedure sections 1281.97 and 1281.98; the timing and the consequences of any late payment are governed by those statutes and applicable law, and this Procedure does not purport to extend, shorten, or alter any deadline they impose, and any extension of a due date is effective only if agreed by all parties.
• The arbitrator; delegation. A single neutral arbitrator decides the dispute. The arbitrator, and not any court or agency, has exclusive authority to resolve threshold disputes about this Procedure, including its formation, validity, scope, enforceability, and arbitrability, any defense to arbitration, and any dispute about compliance with the informal resolution process in Section 2. Three matters are decided by a court, and not the arbitrator: (i) the enforceability of the class- and representative-action waivers in Section 3 and the coordinated-filing provisions of Section 5; (ii) the applicability of the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act (9 U.S.C. Sections 401-402); and (iii) whether Encore’s failure to timely pay arbitration fees or costs results in a waiver of, or default in, its right to compel or continue arbitration, and any resulting election by you to proceed in court, under California Code of Civil Procedure sections 1281.97-1281.99.
• Discovery. The parties are entitled to discovery adequate to vindicate their claims and defenses, including any statutory claims, in accordance with the applicable JAMS rules. The arbitrator shall ensure that discovery is adequate and shall not limit it below what is necessary to fairly present a party’s claims, and may order additional discovery on a showing of need.
• Written award. The arbitrator shall issue a written award that states the essential findings and conclusions on which it is based. The award is final and binding, judgment on it may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction, and it is subject to judicial review to the extent the Federal Arbitration Act provides.

If multiple arbitration demands involving similar claims are filed against Encore, they are administered individually under the administrator’s own published rules for multiple or mass filings, applied by the administrator as a neutral. Encore does not impose any batching, bellwether, precedent, or coordinated-filing procedure of its own design.

Each claimant’s dispute is decided individually, on its own facts. No claimant is bound by, and no claimant’s claim may be determined by, the result of any proceeding in which that claimant did not participate, and there are no binding bellwether or precedent cases. The allocation of fees and costs in Section 4 applies, and statutes of limitation are tolled as provided in the administrator’s rules. The enforceability of the class- and representative-action waivers in Section 3 is decided by a court, not the arbitrator.

Four carve-outs: (1) either party may bring qualifying claims in small-claims court; (2) either party may seek injunctive or equitable relief in court for intellectual-property or unauthorized-use claims (such as infringement, scraping, or misuse of the platform); (3) individual claims of sexual assault or sexual harassment arising in connection with the platform may be brought in court at the claimant’s election, as federal law provides; and (4) requests for public injunctive relief under California law may be decided by a court, and any such request is stayed pending arbitration of all other claims, remedies, and causes of action.

You may opt out of arbitration entirely, with no effect on your use of Encore, by emailing hello@encorestylist.com (clients) or legal@encorestylist.com (stylists, as the Stylist Agreement specifies) within 30 days of first accepting the Terms of Service or the Stylist Agreement (whichever applies to you). Include your name and the email on your account, and state that you are opting out of arbitration. If you opt out, disputes are resolved in the state or federal courts located in San Francisco County, California, and both parties still waive a jury trial to the extent permitted by law.

• Certification. By signing an arbitration demand (or a response), a party, and any counsel, certifies, to the best of their knowledge after reasonable inquiry, that it is not presented for an improper purpose, that the claims and defenses are warranted by existing law or a non-frivolous argument for changing it, and that the factual contentions have or will likely have evidentiary support.
• Sanctions. On a party’s request and proof, the arbitrator shall award the requesting party its reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs upon finding that a claim or defense was groundless in fact or law, brought in bad faith or to harass, or otherwise frivolous, as allowed by applicable law. If a party initiates proceedings on an arbitrable dispute without completing or otherwise in violation of this Procedure, the other party may seek to compel compliance with this Procedure and recover the reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs it incurs in doing so, to the extent permitted by applicable law.
• Offers of judgment. At least 10 days before the arbitration hearing, either party may serve a written offer to allow an award on specified terms. If accepted, the offer and proof of acceptance are submitted to the arbitrator, who enters an award accordingly. If not accepted before the hearing or within 30 days, whichever is first, it is deemed withdrawn and may not be given in evidence except on the question of costs. If the offeree fails to obtain a more favorable award, the offeree may not recover post-offer costs and shall pay the offeror’s post-offer costs, to the extent permitted by the rules and law governing the claim.
• Limit for unwaivable statutory claims. Notwithstanding the Sanctions and Offers-of-judgment provisions above, a party asserting an unwaivable statutory right will not be required to bear any expense, cost, or fee that the party would not be required to bear if the claim were brought in court. For any such claim, the cost-allocation rule in Section 4 controls over this Section to the extent they conflict. In addition, where the JAMS Consumer Arbitration Minimum Standards apply, those Standards’ limits on the fees and costs a consumer may be required to pay control over the Sanctions and Offers-of-judgment provisions of this Section to the extent they conflict.

To the extent permitted by law, the arbitration proceedings and any information exchanged in them are confidential, except as needed to confirm or enforce an award, as the law requires, or as reasonably necessary for a party to pursue or defend the claim, to obtain legal, tax, or financial advice, or to report conduct to or cooperate with a government agency. This Section does not prohibit you from disclosing information about your own experience or your own claim, and it does not limit any right to communicate with a government agency or to participate in a government investigation.

If Encore materially changes this Procedure after you accept it, you may reject the change by emailing hello@encorestylist.com within 30 days of the change’s effective date, with your name and account email and a statement that you reject the arbitration changes. If you reject a change, the version of this Procedure you most recently accepted continues to apply, and rejecting a change does not revoke your prior agreement to arbitrate.

If any part of this Procedure is found invalid, unenforceable, or unlawful, it is first reformed and enforced to the maximum extent permitted by law, and only if it cannot be reformed is it severed. In either case, the remainder of this Procedure stays in full force, as does the parties’ ability to compel individual arbitration of all remaining claims. The invalidity or unenforceability of any single provision, including the class and collective action waiver and the representative-action waiver (including the Private Attorneys General Act waiver) in Section 3, does not affect the validity or enforceability of the agreement to arbitrate or of the remainder of this Procedure. Two targeted exceptions apply: if the class-action waiver in Section 3 is found unenforceable as to a particular claim, that claim, and only that claim, proceeds in court, and all arbitrable claims are arbitrated first while the court claim is stayed; and if the waiver of representative PAGA claims is found unenforceable as to a particular claim, that waiver is severed only as to that claim, the individual PAGA claim is arbitrated, and any non-individual or representative PAGA claims are stayed pending that arbitration. This Procedure survives the end of your relationship with Encore.

Reach us through our contact page or at hello@encorestylist.com.