What authority does an attorney have to bind a client to binding arbitration?

Forty-seven years after Zurich, Blanton v. Womancare, Inc. (1985) 38 Cal.3d 396, 212 Cal.Rptr. 151, 696 P.2d 645, took a narrower view of what decisions in a civil suit are purely procedural and thus part of the attorney's authority in litigating a civil action. In that case, an attorney stipulated to binding arbitration of a pending law suit without his client's express authority and contrary to her express instructions. (Id., at p. 403, 212 Cal.Rptr. 151, 696 P.2d 645.) The court held that an attorney hired to litigate a civil action has no authority to bind his or her client to an agreement for arbitration without obtaining the client's consent. (Id., at pp. 407-408, 212 Cal.Rptr. 151, 696 P.2d 645.)