From Lauren Saunders, Associate Director, National Consumer Law Center:

Folks,

Thanks so much for signing the letter to the Senate asking it not to overturn the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s rule prohibiting consumer financial products from having forced arbitration clauses with class action bans and requiring the collection of data on individual arbitrations.

I wanted to let you know that I have given people a final deadline of September 22 to sign on and we plan to release the letter the week of Sept. 25 (not sure which day yet) with a press release. I will forward both to you.

One request of you now: Please encourage anyone else you know to sign on at this link.  You can see the more than 250 academics who have already signed on here.  Recent news events highlight the importance of the rule:

*The Equifax data breach and effort to use forced arbitration to deprive people of access to the courts;

* Wells Fargo’s use of forced arbitration to keep its scandal quiet and continuing, and block class actions over its 3.5 million fake accounts.

* The CFPB’s recent settlement involving predatory loans made by the for-profit (and now closed) Corinthian Colleges; students tried years ago to sue Corinthian years ago in class actions but were blocked by forced arbitration clauses.

Also, when we release the letter and the press release:

*Please forward it to your Senators and urge them to support the rule.

* If you have any press contacts, forward our press release to them.

Thanks!

Lauren Saunders

Associate Director

National Consumer Law Center

1001 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 510

Washington, DC 20036