Category Archives: Arbitration

The Worst Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Ever ?

Referring to mandatory, binding arbitration, one of my Civil Procedure students just forwarded the following link to me: http://consumerist.com/5148154/mandatory-binding-arbitration-the-worst-choose-your-own-adventure-ever As a kid, my favorite Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book (I forget its name) was one in which the only way to get to the happy place was to completely disregard the rules and just turn to that page.  … Continue reading The Worst Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Ever ? →

Ninth Circuit Has Interesting Ruling on Unconscionability

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The Daily Labor Report states: “Court Must Decide Unconscionability, Not Arbitrator, Ninth Circuit Rules 2-1 A former account manager for a rent-to-own company in Nevada is entitled to have a court decide whether the arbitration agreement he signed as a condition of employment is unconscionable under state contract law, even though the agreement specifies that … Continue reading Ninth Circuit Has Interesting Ruling on Unconscionability →

ADRWorld Discontinued

Very sad news today, from my perspective. ADRWorld will no longer be publishing its very useful subscription service. Announcement here: It is with regret that we announce that effective September 1, 2009, ADRWorld.com will be discontinued. Letters containing important refund information are now being sent to subscribers; please watch for this notification with the red … Continue reading ADRWorld Discontinued →

Bank of America Drops Credit Card Dispute Arbitration Requirement

In an interesting development, Bank of America announced yesterday that it would remove its pre-dispute arbitration clause from its credit card agreements.  See AP report here.  This development cannot be a coincidence and surely is tied to the increasing Congressional scrutiny over mandatory consumer arbitration and the National Arbitration Forum’s decision to exit the consumer … Continue reading Bank of America Drops Credit Card Dispute Arbitration Requirement →

Investor’s Guide to Securities Industry Disputes

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The Pace Law School Investor Rights Clinic, pursuant to a generous grant from the FINRA Investor Education Foundation, has just published the Investor’s Guide to Securities Industry Disputes: How to Prevent and Resolve Disputes with Your Broker.  This Guide, which I co-authored with Clinic Staff Attorney Alice Oshins, is designed to help individual investors with modest investment accounts … Continue reading Investor’s Guide to Securities Industry Disputes →

USA Today has story on lawsuit against NAF

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See the USA Today story discussing the case at: http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/credit/2009-07-14-credit-card-arbitration-firm-lawsuit_N.htm While I don’t necessarily agree that NAF’s potentially problematic financial arrangements impugns the integrity of consumer arbitration generally, I agree that, if proven true, these allegations seriously challenge NAF as an independent, neutral provider of arbitrator services for consumer arbitration. It will be sad if … Continue reading USA Today has story on lawsuit against NAF →

World Trade Center Developer Threatens Arbitration

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The Associated Press reports:  “The private developer of the World Trade Center site threatened Monday to go to an arbitrator unless he and the site’s owner quickly settle a monthslong impasse over how much each should pay to build office towers at ground zero.”  How sad to see the terms “arbitrator” and “threaten” in the … Continue reading World Trade Center Developer Threatens Arbitration →

WSJ Asks if FINRA Arbitration is “New and Improved”

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A WSJ online article posted here reports that the spike in arbitration filings at FINRA Dispute Resolution is testing recent changes to the process designed to make the forum fairer to investors.  The article begins: “Many investors who suffered massive losses in their portfolios are filing complaints against the brokers and brokerage firms that sold them … Continue reading WSJ Asks if FINRA Arbitration is “New and Improved” →