Arbitration

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In Wednesday’s edition of Consumer Law & Policy Blog, Professor Jeff Sovern laments that during Director Rohit Chopra’s recent testimony before the Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee, neither he nor any member of the Committees mentioned “arbitration” as an action item on the CFPB’s agenda. Professor Sovern expresses hope that…

Recently, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reexamined when use of a website can bind a consumer to hyperlinked “terms and conditions” containing an arbitration provision that the consumer never saw or read.  Affirming the district court, the appeals court held that the plaintiffs in Berman v. Freedom Financial Network, LLC did not enter into…

Our special guests are the authors of a 259-page study, “Reboot Required: The Civil Justice System Has Crashed,” which makes the case that the civil justice system has been corrupted by corporations and no longer protects average Americans from corporate abuse.  The study is accompanied by a draft model law intended to create…

Ruling on an important Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) procedural issue that has divided the circuit courts, the U.S. Supreme Court has decided that the “look-through” approach often used in determining whether federal jurisdiction exists to decide motions to compel arbitration filed under Section 4 of the FAA does not apply to motions to confirm or…

A recent blog by Professor Jeff Sovern, occasioned by the recent Senate hearing on consumer arbitration clauses, recycles two of his favorite talking points: (1) consumers don’t understand arbitration clauses, and (2) consumers only benefit from post-dispute, not pre-dispute, arbitration.  We’ve heard it all before, and our previous responses to his earlier iterations of those…

Professor Glover is the author of the first major academic study of mass arbitration, which is soon to be published as a law review article.  In Part II of this two-part podcast, we discuss the economics of mass arbitration, including the minimum claim amount necessary to make mass arbitration viable and how consumers’ recovery in…

Prof. Glover is the author of the first major academic study of mass arbitration, which is soon to be published as a law review article.  In Part I of this two-part podcast, after reviewing the historical background of the Federal Arbitration Act, key SCOTUS arbitration decisions, and the evolution of mass arbitration, Prof. Glover discusses…

The U.S. Senate passed a bipartisan bill aimed at preventing employers from requiring workers to arbitrate sexual harassment and assault claims.  The bill will now go to President Biden for his expected signature.  Known as the “Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021,”  the bill will amend the Federal Arbitration…

The final version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 (NDAA) (S. 1605) currently awaiting President Biden’s signature does not contain several proposed provisions that members of the consumer financial services industry had opposed.

Specifically, the NDAA does not contain provisions that would have:

  • Expanded coverage of the Military Lending

…

The U.S. House of Representatives has fired another salvo against class and collective action waivers in employment agreements.  The recently passed Build Back Better Act (BBB Act) would amend the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to make it unlawful for employers to enter into or attempt to enforce any agreement whereby, prior to a dispute,…