More on the Arbitration Trap

We recently posted here about a new report by Public Citizen's Congress Watch: The Arbitration Trap: How Credit Card Companies Ensnare Consumers.  Analyzing statistics on National Arbitration Forum cases in California, the report demonstrates that arbitrators rule for credit card companies and against their consumers in 94 to 97 percent of the cases.   

The report has gotten a good amount of attention in the past week, including an NPR Marketplace story by Helen Palmer that interviews Public Citizen president Joan Claybrook and law professor Elizabeth Warren, and lots of newspaper stories around the country.   Elizabeth Warren herself wrote a nice piece about the report, and the implications of the larger legislative battle, at TPM Cafe.

As we reported this summer, a comprehensive bill known as the Arbitration Fairness Act (H.R. 3010 and S. 1782) has been introduced in Congress; the proposed legislation would essentially gid rid of mandatory binding arbitration in consumer, employment, franchise, and civil rights disputes.  On the House side, the bill is gaining co-sponsors, including moderate and Republican members.  The legislation is also steadily attracting more news coverage -- though certainly not as much as it should be.  The Consumerists' coverage is also worth checking out.

Finally, co-blogger Richard Alderman has written law review article concluding that the Arbitration Fairness Act, or something along those lines, is the only realistic way out of the current morass -- The Future of Consumer Law in the United States: Hello Arbitration, Bye-Bye Courts, So Long Consumer Protection.

Comments

[Allen Harkleroad]

It's great to see this. This bill needs to be passed. It protect consumers and businesses. It is time to rein in greedy companies that force mandatory arbitration on it's customers.