As has been widely reported, the Supreme Court has granted certiorari to review three conflicting decisions among the circuits on the enforceability of an employer's unilaterally promulgated waiver of employees' right to participate in collective redress. Despite reports to the contrary, it seems prudent to remember that this is not an...
On the front page of today's New York Times there appears an article reporting on a legal argument that is purportedly being advanced by Wells Fargo in response to claims brought on behalf of thousands of customers in whose name, and without whose knowledge, over 2,000,000 "sham" accounts were established. The...
We have previously noted the New Jersey Supreme Court's somewhat radical view of arbitration agreements -- including the proposition that, to be enforceable, each party to the contract needs to understand what arbitration means. This principle has been applied to a subsequent dispute before the State Supreme Court, resulting in...
In considering the debates raging about the enforceability of class action waiver provisions in arbitration clauses, I have always assumed that the arbitration clause was there just as a vessel to hold the class action provision. That is, I thought that there was no vehicle to waive class actions outright....
A group of very prominent stakeholders on commercial dispute resolution met at Cardozo Law School on September 12, 2016, to conduct the New York City session of the Global Pound Conference. Of all the many institutions and volunteers who were responsible for this success, the International Mediation Institute takes the...
Larson Frisby of the American Bar Association recently prepared an informative memo updating the pending federal legislation and regulations that pertain to mediation and arbitration. The memo was presented at the ABA Dispute Resolution Section Council meeting in August and is well worth serious study. It is posted on the...
By now I've attended or participated in quite a few task forces, speeches, conference panels and other occasions in which the issue of class action waivers in consumer arbitration clauses has been discussed. Just about each time, just about each speaker has been either smarter or better informed than I...