In their recent decision in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, the U.S. Supreme Court gave a hearty five thumbs up to anything-goes arbitration clauses. The Court’s opinion means that consumers will trade their 7th Amendment rights to trial by jury for expensive, secret, pro-big business private arbitration. At least some members of Congress are engaged. Sens. Franken and Blumenthal and Rep. Hank Johnson have taken on the task by re-introducing the Arbitration Fairness Act.
Here is what’s at stake. After seven years of work, we favorably settled a multi-million dollar consumer class action against Comcast. My guess is that the case would have failed had it been brought after AT&T Mobility.
Those of us who protect consumers will follow this legislation carefully and work to assist. Meantime, if you’ve been shut out of court by a one-sided arbitration clause, I would love to hear about it. Use the comments or ping me via email.
David
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