Bickel

Plaintiff Ruth Chappell 1 filed a lawsuit alleging that defendant Sunrise Senior Living Management, Inc., also known as Sunrise Assisted Living, violated the Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 15600 et seq.; the Elder Abuse Act), 2 concerning its *5 care of plaintiff while she was a resident at defendant’s assisted living facility (Sunrise). At the time of plaintiff’s admission to Sunrise, she entered into a residency agreement that included an arbitration clause. 3 In response to plaintiff’s lawsuit, defendant petitioned the trial court to compel arbitration of plaintiff’s elder abuse claims pursuant to the residency agreement. The trial court granted the petition, but severed one provision of the arbitration clause that specified each party would bear its own attorney fees and costs in the arbitration. The trial court severed that provision on the ground that it was contrary to public policy, since the Elder Abuse Act specifically called for recovery of attorney fees and costs to prevailing plaintiffs (§ 15657) to effectuate the important public purposes of the law. The case proceeded to arbitration, plaintiff prevailed on her…