Arbitration – Time to Fix a Flawed Forum: Gerald Sauer’s article for the Journal of Consumer & Commercial Law
by Gerald Sauer
Businesses have increasingly embraces arbitration because it helps them avoid the roulette-wheel outcomes of jury trials. This article originally appeared in Law 360.
Arbitration has become a hot-button issue. In September, the House of Representatives passed the Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal (FAIR) Act, intended to ban mandatory arbitration in the workplace, and California enacted AB 51, the latest state effort to protect workers from forced arbitration. The Economic Policy Institute and the Center for Popular Democracy predict that, by 2024, almost 83% of the country’s private, non-unionized employees will be subject to mandatory arbitration, an increase of 56% since 2017.