arbitration

Mandatory Binding Arbitration Will Go Under the CFPB’s Microscope

July 26, 2010

It is a bit premature to start ringing the death knell for mandatory binding arbitration, but the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will have the authority to “prohibit or impose conditions” on arbitration clauses in financial services contracts. This is good news. Mandatory binding arbitration is one more way that corporations end-around the civil justice [...]

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Mandatory Binding Arbitration Makes Debt Collection Worse

July 13, 2010

If you take a bad thing—debt collection—and subtract fairness, it gets worse. The FTC sounded off on the problems with combining debt collection and forced arbitration. In fact, the FTC recommending banning arbitration on the mandatory binding arbitration of debt collection disputes: Such a ban should remain in place until the arbitration process can be [...]

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Arbitrating Arbitration

July 3, 2010

Arbitration is unfair to consumers. This is manifestly obvious to nearly everyone but the arbitration industry and the U.S. Supreme Court. In Rent-A-Center v. Jackson, The U.S. Supreme Court just ruled that arbitrators have the right to decide whether arbitration is fair or not. That is like asking a bully whether you deserve to get [...]

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Bank of America Drops Mandatory Arbitration Clause

August 13, 2009

Bank of America just announced that it will no longer require consumers to arbitrate disputes concerning credit cards and other consumer accounts. Great news! The collapse of pre-dispute, mandatory binding arbitration continues. Hopefully other credit grantors will follow suit. Bank of America ends arbitration of card disputes | Reuters

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Kucinich right on arbitration, wrong on courts

July 30, 2009

Dennis Kucinich and his House Domestic Policy Subcommittee just released a report on arbitration abuse in the National Arbitration Forum (PDF). In the report, the subcommittee stated that “[c]onsumer arbitration lacks the safeguards that have been designed into our judicial system by our Constitution, by state and federal statutes, and by centuries of judicial decisions” [...]

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AAA drops consumer debt arbitrations, too!

July 22, 2009

(Or has it?) Following on the heels of National Arbitration Forum’s agreement to stop handling consumer debt arbitrations, AAA said they will also bow out “until new guidelines are established” (possibly an allusion to the industry’s call for minimum standards in lieu of banning mandatory, pre-dispute, binding arbitration). Now that the two biggest players in [...]

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National Arbitration Forum awards may be unenforceable

July 21, 2009

The Minnesota Attorney General’s lawsuit against National Arbitration forum alleges that NAF is “in cahoots” with one of the largest debt collection law firms in the United States, Mann Bracken. Mann Bracken, un-coincidentally, is also one of NAF’s best clients. Arbitration awards are routinely confirmed by state district courts, as they must be under the [...]

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Nat’l Arbitration Forum Sued, Agrees to Stop Handling Consumer Debt Cases

July 20, 2009

The Minnesota Attorney General sued National Arbitration Forum (PDF) last week, accusing NAF of colluding with creditors and debt collectors to screw consumers. At a press conference, AG Lori Swanson said “[t]his is a classic case of the little guy getting stepped on by fine-print contracts.” Four days later, seeing the writing on the wall, [...]

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Arbitration reform cannot come soon enough

June 16, 2009

In case you missed it, NPR has a really great story on why we need arbitration reform. The piece starts out with the story of Jamie Leigh Jones a 20-year-old Halliburton/KBR employee in 2005, who was in Iraq for only four days before she was brutally gang raped by fellow employees. No criminal action was [...]

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Forced Arbitration: You Can’t Sue Us For Discrimination

April 30, 2009

Why you should support the Arbitration Fairness Act. Forced Arbitration: You Can’t Sue Us For Discrimination | Consumerist

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