From Paul Bland in HuffPo, CFPB Rule Fight Forces Senators to Choose: Military Families or Big Banks. Excerpt: When Gary Childress of Raleigh, North Carolina learned in July 2008 that he was being deployed to Iraq as part of his Army National Guard service, one of the things he did before reporting for duty was to […]
Category Archives: Arbitration
Stephen J. Ware of Kansas has written The Centrist Case for Enforcing Adhesive Arbitration Agreements, Forthcoming in the Harvard Negotiation Law Review. Here is the abstract: "The Politics of Arbitration Law and Centrist Proposals for Reform", 53 Harvard J. on Legislation 711 (2016), explained how issues surrounding consumer, and other adhesive, arbitration agreements became divisive along predictable political lines […]
Colin Hanna, President of Let Freedom Ring USA, has penned Forced arbitration: Big banks' 'Star Chamber' in the Washington Examiner. Excerpt: Elbridge Gerry was a colonial-era plutocrat who became a patriot, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a champion of equal justice under the law. * * * One of his more famous sayings was […]
Benjamin P. Edwards of Nevada has written Arbitration's Dark Shadow, Nevada Law Journal, Forthcoming. Here's the abstract: Arbitration has expanded broadly, removing disputes involving entire industries from judicial review. The absence of judicial review plunges these disputes and industries into shadow. This shadow causes the public to lose sight of vital information about industry practices […]
Chuck Muth has written If Congress Won’t Protect Us from Wells Fargo, then at Least Get Out of the Way. Here's an excerpt: Now, as a conservative I fully support the right of private individuals to freely and voluntarily contract with each other * * * But to require someone to sign away a CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT […]
Here. Excerpt: [S]upport [to overturn the rule] in the Senate is uncertain. No Democrats are likely to back the effort, and Republicans, with their slim majority, can’t afford to lose more than two GOP votes. Several Republican senators have expressed reservations about voting to overturn the regulation, worried they may be portrayed as siding with […]
Jean R. Sternlight of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas has written Hurrah for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Consumer Arbitration As a Poster Child for Regulation, 48 St. Mary's Law Journal 343 (2016). Here is the abstract: Drawing on economic, psychological and philosophical considerations, this Essay considers whether consumers should be "free" to "agree" […]
Here. Excerpt: Big Lie No. 1: Bank lobbyists claim that people recover more in arbitration than in class actions: $32 per person in class actions versus $5,400 per person in arbitration, citing the CFPB’s study. * * * The very few people who take the time and expense to pursue an individual arbitration — only […]
Here. Excerpt: A Senate GOP aide said that supporters of the resolution do not have the votes needed to proceed on the floor, given the absence of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has returned to Arizona to receive medical treatment for brain cancer. A July 28 statement from McCain’s office said he does not plan […]
by Jeff Sovern Here. My favorite sentence points out that in an average year, "[a]t least 6,800,000 consumers get cash relief in class actions—compared with just 16 consumers who receive cash relief in arbitration, according to available data." Here is a longer excerpt: Opponents of the rule have suggested that the bureau’s own findings show consumers […]