Law Commons^™

Privatization Of Employment Claims: Perhaps A Hybrid Approach Will Free American Society From The Epic Trap The Supreme Court Has Sprung Without Forfeiting All Advantages Of Arbitration, Weyman Johnson, Kailyn G. Coots, Alexander Edmonds

William & Mary Business Law Review

Mandatory individual arbitration, as a condition of employment, binds many U.S. employees after the Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis. In effect, fundamental employment protections—such as relief under current anti-discrimination statutes—are privatized. Now, only a legislative fix will break those bonds. Congress and state legislatures have ventured into the fray, though preemption problems plague the latter, and both seem fixated on either excessively narrow categories (harassment claims in employment) or politically distasteful, broad solutions (no individual arbitration allowed in employment or consumer contracts). This Article acknowledges the quandary that the Epic decision, and the Court’s …

Franchisees, Consumers, And Employees: Choice And Arbitration, Robert W. Emerson, Zachary R. Hunt

William & Mary Business Law Review

Commentators and lawmakers have called attention to the rising frequency of contractual arbitration as a non-negotiable condition of many relationships. Indeed, it is a rare individual who is not subject to at least one pre-dispute, binding arbitration agreement.

This Article studies common concerns associated with binding, pre-dispute arbitration agreements and evaluates their use in consumer-vendor, employee-employer, and franchisee-franchisor relationships. Having introduced concepts relevant throughout the Article, the Article in Part I studies contractual arbitration as a form of alternative dispute resolution for transactional disputes between consumers and vendors. It examines industry self-regulation, due process, consumer salience, and forum accessibility including …