by F. Peter Phillips One hot, lonely summer day in 1958, at our rural home near Crozet, Virginia, I was working on an 8-year old’s project: dislodging a big quartz rock that was buried in the gravel driveway. After a few hours I realized the trowel just wouldn’t do the job. So I found a [...]
Karl Bayer and I were discussing the latest bill tracking report for the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2009. This act would ban mandatory pre-dispute arbitration in employment, consumer, and franchise contracts. (House version: H.R. 1020 and Status; Senate version: S. 931 and Status). The House version of the bill has been very active, now with [...]
Continue reading about Arbitration Fairness Act of 2009 – H.R. 1020 Gaining Momentum?
As reported by PointofLaw.com, the House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law held a hearing on September 15th, titled “Mandatory Binding Arbitration – Is it Fair and Voluntary?” Witnesses included: Rep. Henry C. “Hank” Johnson (D-GA), sponsor of H.R. 1020 (a.k.a. “Arbitration Fairness Act”). The Arbitration Fairness Act of 2009 would ban mandatory [...]
Via the Business Conflict Blog, we learned of the recent ABA Resolutions and Report with respect to the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2009 (for background, click here and here) and its implications to international commercial arbitration. This is the summary: The American Bar Association should support the use of international commercial arbitration and legislation or [...]
During this Fourth of July holiday weekend, our good friend Don Philbin stumbled across “Civil Jury Trials R.I.P.? Can it Actually Happen in America?” 40 St. Mary’s L.J. 795 written by the Honorable W. Royal Furgeson, Jr. In the article, Judge Furgeson discusses the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2007, which is analogous to the Arbitration [...]
Yesterday, NPR had an interesting article about the controversial issue of mandatory arbitration of claims between businesses and individuals (employees and consumers). First, the article discusses the unfortunate story of a young woman who was allegedly raped by several men while working in Iraq for Halliburton. At issue in her case ( Jones v. Halliburton [...]
Continue reading about Employment and Consumer Arbitration: NPR Article
Last week, the U.S. Senate introduced its own version of the “Arbitration Fairness Act of 2009″ (H.R. 1020, status). The new bill ( S. 931, status), also titled “Arbitration Fairness Act of 2009,” is similar, but not identical to H.R. 1020. The Senate bill is discussed in detail by Philip J. Loree Jr. in The [...]
Continue reading about U.S. Senate Introduces Its Own Version of the Arbitration Fairness Act
As previously blogged here, the debate over predispute arbitration clauses in contracts between businesses and consumers, employees, and franchisees is heating up. Supporters of the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2009 held a press conference last week on “Fairness Arbitration Day.” See related posts after the jump. In contrast, Professor Omri Ben-Shahar from the University of [...]
“Arbitration Fairness Day” is today (see background here and here). O. Russel Murray wrote an interesting analysis on the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2009 (a.k.a. H.R. 1020; the status of the bill is here). He acknowledges that there have been some problems with mandatory arbitration within the context of employment, consumer, franchises, and civil right [...]
Continue reading about Arbitration Fairness Act of 2009: Analysis
GUEST-POST PART II | Employment Arbitration: Short-Term Value but Long-Term Harm
by F. Peter Phillips This post continues Part I. As drafted, the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2009 (House Bill 1020) would amend Section 2(b) of the FAA to render invalid any pre-dispute arbitration agreement that purports to require arbitration of “an employment, consumer, or franchise dispute.” (“Franchise dispute?” How did that get in there? I [...]
Continue reading about GUEST-POST PART II | Employment Arbitration: Short-Term Value but Long-Term Harm