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55% of workers are bound by a forced arbitration “agreement”
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93% of banks use forced arbitration for checking accounts
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81% of America’s largest companies use forced arbitration
Center for Justice & Democracy: Cases Tossed Out of Court Because of Forced Arbitration Causes and Class Action Bans
“In 2011 and again in 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that corporations can strip people of their constitutional right to civil jury trial and force them into private, corporate-controlled arbitration systems to resolve disputes.The Court also said that companies have the unilateral right to ban class actions by inserting class action “waivers” into these arbitration clauses.”
UC Davis Law Review: The Prevalence of Consumer Arbitration Agreements by America’s Top Companies
“This study examines the use of arbitration agreements in connection with consumer transactions by the top 100 largest domestic United States companies, as ranked by Fortune magazine.”
Economic Policy Institute: The growing use of mandatory arbitration
“In a trend driven by a series of Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1991, American employers are increasingly requiring their workers to sign mandatory arbitration agreements.”
North Carolina Law Review: The Black Hole Of Mandatory
Arbitration
“From the early days of mandatory arbitration of statutory claims—especially employment-discrimination claims—one major critique has been the loss of transparency and publicity that attends a shift from litigation in public courts to arbitration in private tribunals.”
Congressional Research Service: Mandatory Arbitration and the Federal Arbitration Act
“Arbitration is a method of legal dispute resolution in which a neutral, private third party, rather than a judge or jury, renders a decision on a particular matter. Under a growing number of consumer and employment agreements, companies have come to require arbitration to resolve disputes.”
The Pew Charitable Trusts: Consumers Want the Right to Resolve Bank Disputes in Court
“Checking accounts are among the most widely used financial tools in the United States, and disputes can arise between consumers and their banks over fees and other policies. Customers wishing to pursue legal remedies often find that their options are limited, however; previous research from The Pew Charitable Trusts shows that many account agreements restrict the legal recourse available to consumers who have disputes with their banks.”
Illinois Law Review: The Day Doctrine Died: Private Arbitration And The End Of Law
“This story begins in 1980, when a budding anti-lawsuit movement found an energetic champion in a new conservative President. Over time, the movement became a dominant feature of political life, as its narrative of activist judges, jackpot justice, and a thriving lawsuit industry stirred partisan passions.”
Journal of Dispute Resolution: Exploring the Federal Arbitration Act through the Lens of History Symposium
“The United States Arbitration Act (known today as the Federal Arbitration Act, or FAA) is a relatively short and deceptively cryptic statute. The heart of the statute, section 2, is one sentence, and this key provision simply declares that arbitration agreements are generally “valid, irrevocable, and enforceable.””
Economic Policy Institute: Mandatory arbitration deprives workers and consumers of their rights
“In the past three decades, the Supreme Court has engineered a massive shift in the civil justice system that is having dire consequences for consumers and employees.”
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Arbitration Study
“In Section 1028(a) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, Congress instructs the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the “Bureau”) to study “the use of agreements providing for arbitration of any future dispute . . . in connection with the offering or providing of consumer financial products or services,” and to provide a report to Congress on the same topic. This document presents the results of that study.”
Cornell University ILR School: Comparing Mandatory Arbitration and Litigation: Access, Process, and Outcomes
“What do we know about mandatory arbitration and its impact? Some existing studies have examined samples of employment arbitration cases, usually obtained from the American Arbitration Association (AAA), which is currently the largest arbitration service provider in the employment area.”
UCLA Law Review: Procedure, Substance, and Power: Collective Litigation and Arbitration Under the Labor Law
“In this contribution to the Symposium honoring Stephen Yeazell, the author explores the interaction between group litigation and social context in the contemporary setting. She traces developments in the recent law of class action waivers coupled with mandatory individual arbitration clauses in consumer and employment contracts.”
Cornell University ILR School: An Empirical Study of Employment Arbitration: Case Outcomes and Processes
“Using data from reports filed by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) pursuant to California Code requirements, this article examines outcomes of employment arbitration. The study analyzes 3,945 arbitration cases, of which 1,213 were decided by an award after a hearing, filed and reaching disposition between January 1, 2003 and December 31, 2007.”
Florida State University Law Review: Statutory Miconstruction: How the Supreme Court Created a Federal Arbitration Law Never Enacted by Congress
“This Article will focus on how a simple procedural statute enacted to require enforcement of arbitration agreements in federal court has become unrecognizable as the law Congress adopted in 1925.”
