Consumer and Worker Arbitration Provisions

Written by leading practitioners, this eighth edition is the definitive treatise on determining whether a case can be forced into binding arbitration, defeating arbitration clauses, and successfully conducting proceedings.

Defeating Arbitration Requirements

• Federal Statutory Limits: Federal enforceability limits across mortgages, manufactured housing, military credit, bankruptcy, schools, nursing homes, credit reporting, sexual harassment, and the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA).
• Formation & Digital Agreements: Key precedents finding arbitration agreements invalidly consummated, particularly within digital contracts.
• Waiver & Non-Coverage: Identifying when businesses waive arbitration through prior court litigation or failure to pay arbitration fees, and establishing when consumers, defendants, or claims fall outside an agreement.
• Unconscionability & Preemption: Leveraging unconscionability defenses, effective vindication of federal claims, and state law limits (e.g., insurance, transportation workers) that survive FAA preemption.

Conducting & Succeeding in Arbitration

• Arbitration Practice Tactics: Practitioner strategies and tips for winning individual consumer arbitration proceedings.
• Mass & Class Arbitration: Utilizing mass arbitration to secure widespread relief and identifying when class arbitration serves as a viable alternative to individual proceedings.
• Defending Awards: Restricting business challenges to successful consumer arbitration awards, including punitive damage awards.

Praise

"The National Consumer Law Center has come to the rescue of lawyers handling consumer cases. The Series has the answers for the myriad questions that can arise. The analysis of the law contains an extensive study of state statutes and generous footnotes citing case law in every state." — Texas Bar Journal