Last week, the Dr. Lorena Martin lawsuit came to at least a temporary conclusion when Judge Regina Cahan ruled that the arbitration clause in Dr. Martin’s contract was not preempted by a new Washington state law against discrimination. To get a sense of the arguments at stake in determining this issue, you can look to our previous coverage here and here.
While Dr. Martin has 30 days to appeal this decision—and I suspect she will do so—barring a surprising result on appeal, this will bring an end to the public lawsuit. The Mariners claimed at the hearing that nothing about the arbitration process will keep her from sharing information from that arbitration, but as Judge Cahan noted in the hearing, an arbitration is really never going to be as public as a full-on lawsuit.