Here's the text of CFPB Director Richard Cordray's remarks on the arbitration report, to be delivered at today's field hearing in Newark. He summarizes the legal backdrop to the Bureau's report, its empirical approach, and its key findings (which I've highlighted in bold). Well worth reading in full. Prepared Remarks of Richard Cordray Director […]
Category Archives: Arbitration
by Jeff Sovern Brian posted earlier that the CFPB has announced a field hearing on arbitration for March 10. Because the CFPB often schedules such hearings when it announces something, it is probably going to release the next installment in its arbitration report (maybe the final installment) in conjunction with the hearing. As Brian also […]
by Jeff Sovern Some arbitration clauses provide that consumers can opt out of arbitration if the consumer writes to the company within a certain period of time of entering into the agreement, typically 30-60 days after opening the account. In our arbitration study, we observed that we didn't know how many consumers had taken advantage […]
by Peter Holland In anticipation of the CFPB’s forthcoming study on forced arbitration in consumer contracts, we can expect lots of rhetoric from industry about how arbitration is more consumer friendly than litigation, and that it results in better outcomes (i.e. more money) for consumers. (If this were really so, then how could a company […]
by Jeff Sovern Peter Holland has an interesting blog post pulling together a lot of the most significant findings of our arbitration study and adding his own commentary. Meanwhile, Ballard Spahr lawyers Alan Kaplinsky, Mark Levin, and Daniel McKenna responded to my earlier American Banker op-ed in an op-ed of their own, claiming Consumers Fare Better […]
Here. An excerpt: Right now, the CFPB is finishing up the second phase of its study, which will hone in on consumers' understanding of arbitration clauses. At that point, it will decide whether it needs to act. If the bureau's findings are anything like those of the law school study, it must. Being stripped of our […]