Category Archives: Public Policy

Schwab removes class action waiver from customer agreements

May 17, 2013 Jill Gross

Responding to substantial pressure from regulators and the investing public, the brokerage firm Charles Schwab reversed itself and eliminated the class action waiver clause from its pre-dispute arbitration clause in its customer account agreements. See news coverage here. Readers of this blog know from my previous posts that in early 2012 FINRA brought a disciplinary … Continue reading Schwab removes class action waiver from customer agreements →

Arbitration Fairness Act of 2013 introduced in Congress

May 8, 2013 Jill Gross

Once again, a bill to ban mandatory arbitration of consumer, employment and civil rights disputes has been introduced into both houses of Congress. It is sponsored by Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) and Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA). The text is not yet available, but the press release states the following: “What the Arbitration Fairness Act Does: … Continue reading Arbitration Fairness Act of 2013 introduced in Congress →

FINRA Dispute Resolution Pilots Telephonic Mediation for Small Claims

January 17, 2013 Jill Gross

FINRA Dispute Resolution announced yesterday that it will launch a pilot program to offer pro bono or reduced-fee telephonic mediation to parties whose dispute has a dollar value $50,000 or less. Kudos to FINRA for devising this low cost option to benefit investors of modest means whose claims are too small to make an arbitration … Continue reading FINRA Dispute Resolution Pilots Telephonic Mediation for Small Claims →

Nitro-Lift Technologies v. Howard: Forum Selection and the FAA Savings Clause

December 7, 2012 Paul Kirgis 1 Comment

As I argued in a recent post, Nitro-Lift Technologies v. Howard, 568 U.S. ___ (2012), is another in an increasingly long line of cases that trample on state sovereignty in the name of the Supreme Court’s fabricated “federal policy favoring arbitration.” The question for state courts chafing under this regime is whether legal strategies exist … Continue reading Nitro-Lift Technologies v. Howard: Forum Selection and the FAA Savings Clause →

Nitro-Lift Technologies v. Howard: The Arbitration Locomotive Rolls On

December 5, 2012 Paul Kirgis 2 Comments

As Jill Gross suggested in her post the other day, there is nothing novel about the Supreme Court’s per curiam decision in Nitro-Lift Technologies v. Howard, 568 U.S. ___ (2012). And the fact that the case seems unexceptional is powerful evidence for how extreme the Supreme Court’s arbitration jurisprudence has become. Like most states, Oklahoma has … Continue reading Nitro-Lift Technologies v. Howard: The Arbitration Locomotive Rolls On →

Regulating the Rogue Mediator

November 29, 2012 art hinshaw 5 Comments

At the Works-in-Progress Conference at Ohio State (again, great job putting the conference together) I presented an early draft of a paper entitled Regulating the Rogue Mediator. The abstract is below, and yes it is the longest abstract in the history of mankind. At present the private practice of mediation is unlicensed and unregulated. Barriers … Continue reading Regulating the Rogue Mediator →

A Stumble in the March of Adjudicative Privatization: Delaware Chancery Arbitration Scheme Declared Unconstitutional

August 31, 2012 Paul Kirgis

Last winter, I wrote about the Delaware Court of Chancery’s arbitration scheme, in which the court hired out its Chancery Judges to serve as “private” arbitrators, deciding in secret cases they otherwise would have been deciding in public, with proceeds from the five-figure fees going into court coffers. The scheme was a grotesque, if predictable, … Continue reading A Stumble in the March of Adjudicative Privatization: Delaware Chancery Arbitration Scheme Declared Unconstitutional →

Gender and Attorney Negotiation Ethics

July 26, 2012 art hinshaw 1 Comment

My piece (w/ Jess Alberts) entitled Gender and Attorney Negotiation Ethics is now up on SSRN. Frequent Indisputably readers will remember that it was a part of last December’s Washington University New Directions in Negotiation and ADR Conference and appears as part of an ADR symposium issue in Wash U’s Journal of Law and Policy. The abstract is below. Building on a prior … Continue reading Gender and Attorney Negotiation Ethics →

Helfland on Religion and Arbitration

March 30, 2012 art hinshaw 1 Comment

If you’re not a regular reader of Prawfsblog, you’ve missed out on some excellent guest blogging by Michael Helfland (Pepperdine). Helfland’s primary interest areas are arbitration and the intersection between law and religion and, not surprisigly, his Prawfs posts of interests focus on those two themes. In the first post he uses a case out Florida involving the Church of … Continue reading Helfland on Religion and Arbitration →

What do the Mets, Bernie Madoff, and Mario Cuomo have in Common?

March 19, 2012 art hinshaw 1 Comment

If you’ve been paying attention today’s news, you’ve probably heard that the owners of the New York Mets baseball team and Irving Pickard, the trustee for the Madoff vicitms, settled the Trustee’s claim for $1billion in damages for a reported $162million. This article in the NYTimes gives some interesting information about the case generally and … Continue reading What do the Mets, Bernie Madoff, and Mario Cuomo have in Common? →