Today, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Oxford Health Plans, LLC v. Sutter, that casts some doubt on an oft-recited interpretation of Stolt-Nielson, S.A. v. AnimalFeeds Int’l Corp., 559 U.S. 662 (2010). In Stolt-Nielson, the Court held: “a party may not be...
In a bold move that challenged the basic tenets of contract formation, General Mills quietly updated its Privacy Policy on April 2 to include a mandatory, binding arbitration clause and class action waiver. And while simple updates to Internet privacy policies in the...
Shortly after Supreme Court ruling in AT&T v. Concepcion was released, many consumer advocate attorneys (and even professors) claimed that the ruling was “the end of class action litigation.” While some groups have already come forward in attempting to...
The Seventh Amendment provides that, in suits at common law, “the right of trial by jury shall be preserved.” And yet, we live in a world where we are bound – whether we know we are or not -- to standard form contracts that give away the right to a trial by jury if...
The following is a guest post by F. Paul Bland, Jr., a Senior Attorney for Public Justice. This probably won't shock you: five members of the U.S. Supreme Court really like mandatory arbitration. Over the last few decades, the most important cases pertaining to...
Earlier this month, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reaffirmed its prior holding that a class action waiver was unenforceable where it effectively precluded plaintiffs from vindicating their federal statutory rights. In re Am. Express Merchants’ Litig., No....
Building upon the absurd precedent created in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, this past Thursday, the Supreme Court issued an opinion which held that mandatory, binding arbitration clauses and class action waivers are enforceable, even if the cost of arbitrating an...
The Wall Street Journal’s May 4 Opinion page brought me some pause. Not for its crafty wordplay (indeed, the “plaintiffs lobby” was a pretty clever way to portray plaintiffs’ attorneys some kind of back-room, self-interested, policy-buying dealmakers, and somehow the...
Consumers and workers rejoice while large corporations wallow. Just two weeks ago, President Barack Obama signed an executive order that not only tackles labor law-breaking companies, but also prohibits mandatory arbitration to settle workplace discrimination and...
The deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown have brought several topics to the forefront of public discussion in recent weeks. Questions of racial profiling, discrimination and the threat of an increasing police state have bubbled up into the public consciousness,...
Over the past five years, Wells Fargo opened more than 2 million bogus deposit and credit card accounts in its customers’ names without their knowledge or consent. The practice let the company reap millions by charging its customers unwanted fees and allowed Wells...
Observers around the country have been describing the disappearance of the civil jury trial for quite some time. In recent years, fewer than two percent of federal actions have gone to trial and less than one percent were heard by a jury. And while the trend was...