That's a point made in an op-ed in The Hill, Why Wells Fargo Got Away with It So Long by Public Citizen's Robert Weissman and AFR's Lisa Donner. The whole piece is worth reading, but here's an excerpt: [M]ore than three years ago, a Wells Fargo customer named David Douglas sued in California, contending that the bank's employees […]
Category Archives: Arbitration
by Jeff Sovern Tomorrow, the Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing on the Wells Fargo unauthorized accounts fiasco. The first witness will be Wells' Chairman and CEO, John G. Stumpf. I hope some Senator asks Mr. Stumpf about the Wells Fargo arbitration clause. Some class actions have already been filed against Wells, and Wells' […]
by Jeff Sovern As has been widely reported, last week the CFPB fined Wells Fargo $100 million for setting up phony accounts in consumers' names. But that didn't stop the House Financial Services Committee from voting yesterday on a largely party-line vote to adopt the Financial Choice Act, which would gut the Bureau. According to Law360, the […]
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] […]
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 […]