In a guest column for the Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger, New Jersey trial attorney Bruce Stern, who is treasurer for the American Association for Justice, writes that “a recent series of articles published in the New York Times shone a light on the secretive practice of” forced arbitration, which “limits people’s ability to band together in a class action lawsuit if they are cheated by a company,” because, “rather than having our case heard in an open court before a judge or jury, we are instead forced into secretive arbitration hearings, with the arbitrator hand-picked by the company that wronged us.” Stern calls it “a rigged system that favors corporations and prevents consumers from holding companies accountable,” and he urges the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to “eliminate forced arbitration in banking and credit card agreements,” adding that Congress “can and should pass the Arbitration Fairness Act, a bill that would eliminate forced arbitration in employment, consumer, civil rights and antitrust cases.”
From the news release of the American Association for Justice.
