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Full-Text Articles in Law
Correcting A Flaw In The Arbitration Fairness Act, Imre Stephen Szalai
Correcting A Flaw In The Arbitration Fairness Act, Imre Stephen Szalai
Journal of Dispute Resolution
The proposed Arbitration Fairness Act of 2013 will ban courts from enforcing arbitration agreements in the employment and consumer contexts. This law will protect America's employees and consumers by keeping the courthouse door open to critical civil rights, employment, and consumer protection litigation. However, the proposed Arbitration Fairness Act suffers from a subtle flaw: it is uncertain whether the law will apply to the states. This flaw, which arises from one of the greatest constitutional errors the Supreme Court has ever made, must be corrected in order to provide the broadest protection to millions of American employees and consumers, and …
New Use Of The Doctrine Of Unconscionability To Invalidate Arbitration Agreements In Consumer Contracts, The Note, Valerie Dixon
New Use Of The Doctrine Of Unconscionability To Invalidate Arbitration Agreements In Consumer Contracts, The Note, Valerie Dixon
Journal of Dispute Resolution
Manfredi v. Blue Cross and Blue Shield suggests that this old judicial hostility is alive and well in Missouri jurisprudence. In an effort to level the playing field between parties of unequal bargaining power, Missouri courts have applied the unconscionability doctrine as a way to sidestep the United States Supreme Court's asserted policy favoring arbitration over litigation.7 This note considers the new approach of Missouri courts in invalidating arbitration agreements through the doctrine of unconscionability in the consumer context.
Dispensing Injustice: Stolt-Nielsen And Its Implications - Stolt-Nielsen S.A. V. Animalfeeds Int'l Corp., Nicholas Goodrich
Dispensing Injustice: Stolt-Nielsen And Its Implications - Stolt-Nielsen S.A. V. Animalfeeds Int'l Corp., Nicholas Goodrich
Journal of Dispute Resolution
The immediate effect of the holding was to allow a group of corporate defendants to use their superior bargaining position in the contracting process to effectively shield themselves from liability. Although Stolt-Nielsen involved business entities, the case also has implications in the consumer context. If the Court were to extend the reasoning of the case to disputes involving adhesion contracts, corporations would enjoy this immunity in the context of consumer disputes. Far from a hypothetical exercise in the reaches of Supreme Court jurisprudence, the Court is expected to decide this very issue during the 2010 term. In light of these …
Little Fish In A Big Sea: Should Consumer Protection Statutes Override Class Arbitration Waivers, A, Thomas Wilmowski
Little Fish In A Big Sea: Should Consumer Protection Statutes Override Class Arbitration Waivers, A, Thomas Wilmowski
Journal of Dispute Resolution
As arbitration agreements have become increasingly commonplace in dealings between large companies and their subscribers, courts have taken a strong interest in protecting consumer rights. As part of this protection, courts have to apply federal statutes, protecting the right to treble damages and recovery of attorney's fees in the context of mass arbitration agreements. The difficulty comes in attempting to allow companies to exercise their freedom of contract while protecting consumers with little bargaining power. Although other courts have largely favored arbitration, and upheld its applicability, a clash remains between consumer protection statutes and the waiver of those statutory rights …
Paying The Price Of Process: Judicial Regulation Of Consumer Arbitration Agreements, Stephen J. Ware
Paying The Price Of Process: Judicial Regulation Of Consumer Arbitration Agreements, Stephen J. Ware
Journal of Dispute Resolution
Arbitration clauses now appear in many of the form contracts through which consumers obtain goods, services and credit.' Why do so many businesses that deal with consumers choose arbitration? Relative to litigation, arbitration provides opportunities for a business to save on its dispute-resolution costs. If arbitration does, in fact, lower these costs then arbitration lowers the prices (and interest rates) consumers pay because competition forces businesses to pass their cost-savings on to consumers.
Comsumer Dispute Resolution In Missouri: Missouri's Need For A True Consumer Ombudsman
Comsumer Dispute Resolution In Missouri: Missouri's Need For A True Consumer Ombudsman
Journal of Dispute Resolution
The purpose of this Article is to explore the practicality of such a "modest proposal." In determining whether Missouri really needs a consumer ombudsman, the first order of business must be to comprehend how consumer protection developed in Missouri. Once established, this framework sheds lights upon how complaints are processed and what remedies are available to Missouri consumers. Only after we know the extent of the typical consumer's helplessness can we start to appreciate the need for an alternative dispute resolution device in Missouri. Finally, this article concludes by proposing a viable solution to Missouri's consumer crisis-the Consumer Ombudsman.
Consumer Problems And Adr: An Analysis Of The Federal Trade Commission-Ordered General Motors Mediation And Arbitration Program, Arthur Best
Journal of Dispute Resolution
This Article evaluates a controversial mediation and arbitration program established by General Motors (GM) for owners of certain cars. It began in 1984, under the terms of a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) consent order settling charges that GM had deceptively failed to inform buyers that particular models of cars contained components that had unusually low durability. When the settlement was proposed, debate centered on whether the public interest would be served best by: 1) creation of mediation and arbitration opportunities for individual owners; or 2) prosecution of a single action seeking uniform compensation for all owners. One commissioner feared that …
Consumers Swallow Another Lemon: Agency Consent Order Preemption Of State Lemon Law Standards For Informal Dispute Resolution - General Motors V. Abrams, Gregory L. Barnes
Consumers Swallow Another Lemon: Agency Consent Order Preemption Of State Lemon Law Standards For Informal Dispute Resolution - General Motors V. Abrams, Gregory L. Barnes
Journal of Dispute Resolution
This Note will first examine the background of GM v. Abrams, which involves a successful attempt by General Motors (GM) to use a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) consent order to block the application of New York's "Lemon Law" 6 to the arbitration program contained in the order.7 Second, it will discuss the legal context of the dispute (chiefly the extension of the federal preemption doctrine to "implicitly preemptive" agency consent orders). Third, it will outline the court's application of that doctrine in the instant case. Finally, it will offer a critical evaluation of both the legal and policy grounds of …