Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Beyond Elite Law
- Foreword
- List of Contributors
- Overview
- Overview
- PART I CURRENT STATE OF ACCESS TO LEGAL SERVICES
- PART II SOURCES OF LEGAL SERVICES ASSISTANCE FOR WORKING AMERICANS
- PART III FASHIONING A REFORM AGENDA
- 23 New York State Task Force to Expand Access to Civil Legal Services
- 24 New York's 50-hour Pro Bono Requirement
- 25 Starting a “Low Bono” Law Practice
- 26 Toward a More Effective and Accessible Solo and Small Firm Practice Model
- 27 Facilitating Homemade Wills
- 28 Court Facilitation of Self-Representation
- 29 Limited Representation and Ethical Challenges
- 30 Technology Can Solve Much of America's Access to Justice Problem, If We Let It
- 31 Mediation of Employment Disputes at the EEOC
- 32 AAA Consumer Arbitration
- 33 Saturns for Rickshaws: Lessons for Consumer Arbitration and Access to Justice
- 34 Employment Arbitration in the Securities Industry
- 35 FINRA Arbitration and Employment Disputes
- 36 Arbitration as an Employee-Friendly Forum
- 37 Access to Justice in Employment Arbitration: a Critical Look
- 38 Collaborative Technology Improves Access to Justice
- 39 Union Representation in Employment Arbitration
- 40 Legal Representation for New York City's Chinese Immigrant Workers
- 41 Reassessing Unauthorized Practice of Law Rules
- 42 The Pyett Protocol: Collectively-Bargained Grievance Arbitration as a Forum for Individual Statutory Employment Claims
- PART IV CREATING A CULTURE OF SERVICE
- Index
32 - AAA Consumer Arbitration
from PART III - FASHIONING A REFORM AGENDA
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2016
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Beyond Elite Law
- Foreword
- List of Contributors
- Overview
- Overview
- PART I CURRENT STATE OF ACCESS TO LEGAL SERVICES
- PART II SOURCES OF LEGAL SERVICES ASSISTANCE FOR WORKING AMERICANS
- PART III FASHIONING A REFORM AGENDA
- 23 New York State Task Force to Expand Access to Civil Legal Services
- 24 New York's 50-hour Pro Bono Requirement
- 25 Starting a “Low Bono” Law Practice
- 26 Toward a More Effective and Accessible Solo and Small Firm Practice Model
- 27 Facilitating Homemade Wills
- 28 Court Facilitation of Self-Representation
- 29 Limited Representation and Ethical Challenges
- 30 Technology Can Solve Much of America's Access to Justice Problem, If We Let It
- 31 Mediation of Employment Disputes at the EEOC
- 32 AAA Consumer Arbitration
- 33 Saturns for Rickshaws: Lessons for Consumer Arbitration and Access to Justice
- 34 Employment Arbitration in the Securities Industry
- 35 FINRA Arbitration and Employment Disputes
- 36 Arbitration as an Employee-Friendly Forum
- 37 Access to Justice in Employment Arbitration: a Critical Look
- 38 Collaborative Technology Improves Access to Justice
- 39 Union Representation in Employment Arbitration
- 40 Legal Representation for New York City's Chinese Immigrant Workers
- 41 Reassessing Unauthorized Practice of Law Rules
- 42 The Pyett Protocol: Collectively-Bargained Grievance Arbitration as a Forum for Individual Statutory Employment Claims
- PART IV CREATING A CULTURE OF SERVICE
- Index
Summary
Organizations that administer arbitration and other ADR services can by rulemaking, in consultation with industry and claimant groups, improve the fairness of the process for the parties. Consumer disputes present a particular challenge for arbitration systems when the small size of an individual consumer's claim may, as a practical matter, preclude even assertion of the claim. This is a problem also in litigation, but class actions, which can aggregate small clains, may be more readily available in court. Christopher Drahozal examines the initiatives of the American Arbitration Association, the leading ADR provider in the country, to promote fair consumer arbitrations.
Whether arbitration – resolution of a dispute by a private judge rather than in the public court system – increases or reduces access to justice is hotly debated. Samuel Estreicher, for instance, urges that “[a] properly designed arbitration system … can do a better job of delivering accessible justice for average claimants than a litigation-based approach.” Others, notably Jean Sternlight and David Schwartz, argue that arbitration increases costs and discourages lawyers from taking consumer cases, thereby reducing consumer access to justice but increasing corporate profits.
This chapter does not take sides in that debate. Instead, it seeks to advance the debate by presenting information on arbitrations involving disputes between consumers and businesses that are administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA). During 2010–12, the AAA received over 7,000 consumer arbitration filings, and is commonly named in consumer arbitration clauses as the sole administrator or one of several administrators of consumer arbitrations. The types of businesses involved in AAA consumer arbitrations include credit card issuers and other consumer lenders, cell phone companies, car dealers, mobile home sellers, real estate brokers, home builders, insurance companies and extended warranty providers, and law and accounting firms, among others. AAA consumer arbitration has become a widely used process for resolving disputes between businesses and consumers, and this chapter seeks to provide a better understanding of how that process works.
AAA CONSUMER ARBITRATION PROCEDURES
As noted earlier, businesses commonly name the AAA as the arbitration administrator in their standard form contracts with consumers. The AAA, like other arbitration administrators, does not itself act as the arbitrator – that is, it does not itself issue a binding decision that resolves the parties’ dispute.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Beyond Elite LawAccess to Civil Justice in America, pp. 478 - 492Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2016
- 1
- Cited by