Irvine lawyer Greg Labate is quoted in the Orange County Register: Labate advises clients to get their employees to sign arbitration agreements, waiving their right to sue in court, and sending disputes to privately hired arbitrators. * * * “People question whether arbitration tends to favor employers,” Labate told a [Professionals in Human Resources Association] […]
Category Archives: Arbitration
David L. Noll of Rutgers has written Regulating Arbitration, California Law Review, Forthcoming. Here's the abstract: Arbitration is everywhere, as are calls to regulate its use in consumer and employment contracts. But when should Congress and federal administrative agencies do so? That is, what is the policy rationale for regulating arbitration through federal legislation and agency […]
Here. Excerpt: Thousands of angry consumers and business representatives have flooded the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau with comments on its May proposal to block companies from forcing customers to take disputes to arbitration instead of joining group lawsuits. Sentiment in the unusually high number of comment letters, more than 8,380 have already been filed though […]
by Jeff Sovern Recently I saw an off-Broadway play by Norman Shabel, A Class Act. Shabel is a longtime practicing lawyer and the play is about negotiations to settle a toxic waste class action case (not a consumer case). Nevertheless, the lawyers note that the case can proceed as a class action because the victims–people […]
Imre S. Szalai of Loyola of New Orleans has written Exploring the Federal Arbitration Act Through the Lens of History, Journal of Dispute Resolution, Vol. 2016, No. 1 (2016). Here's the abstract: My initial interest in the history of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) arose out of my experiences representing clients and seeing how the FAA […]
by Jeff Sovern The Senate letter, signed by more than a third of the Senators, is here, and the House letter with 65 signers, is here. The letters are more than pro forma expressions of support. They are extensively footnoted (and the House letter cites the law professor letter joined by more than 200 professors). Some excerpts […]
Back in February, Gregory Gauthier wondered why Starbucks changed its arbitration clause. Now, he writes: I was looking through the Q2 2016 Consumer Arbitration Statistics for the American Arbitration Association, and I found a case filed against Starbucks on January 18, 2016 (case #011600001646, row 5053). The Colorado pro se consumer in that case brought […]
David S. Schwartz of Wisconsin has written Justice Scalia's Jiggery-Pokery in Federal Arbitration Law, Minnesota Law Review, Vol. 101, Headnotes 75 (2016). Here's the abstract: "Jiggery-pokery," a phrase introduced into the U.S. Reports by the late Justice Scalia, is emblematic of Justice Scalia's style — both his lively writing style and his penchant for criticizing his […]
by Jeff Sovern Yesterday the House passed the financial services appropriations bill. Here is how the Appropriations Committee describes the bill's provisions pertaining to the CFPB: The bill includes a provision to increase oversight over the CFPB by bringing funding for the agency under the annual congressional appropriations process, instead of direct funding from the […]