Mandatory class-action-waiver arbitration clauses quietly extinguish small consumer claims

Evidence

More recently, the Supreme Court has upheld arbitration clauses that include class-​ action waivers, which mean that consumers and employees with small claims are forced to arbitrate them individually instead of being allowed to combine them into a collective action. In practice, this means many of the claims just disappear; it is rarely worth one person’s time and money to pursue a small claim (and he would never find a lawyer to take such a case). Of course, that is one of the main reasons companies put such clauses into their contracts to begin with. — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law, 1513

Categorization

• CANDY: A compact, memorable mechanism: fine-print arbitration clauses are designed knowing small claims will vanish — good elevator material.
• XREF: connects to: Rules without enforcement mechanisms are meaningless. — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law: An Introduction, 143; Future-dispute arbitration waivers differ morally from submitting an existing dispute — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 4900; Contested small claims cases are usually brought by individual plaintiffs, not businesses — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law: An Introduction, 294 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Legal rulings ended a century of class-action consumer protection #corroborates (0.85) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 299
• Arbitration secrecy hides disputes from public view once judgments are paid #expands (0.80) — Lisa Bernestein, Opting out of the Legal System, 71
• Private arbitration can effectively substitute for courts #qualifies (0.80) — Lisa Bernestein, Opting out of the Legal System, 40