Third Thursday--C&M's January Labor & Employment Update: Arbitration of Employee and Consumer Disputes Enforcement and Compliance Issues in 2016

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Please join us for the next edition of Third Thursday – Crowell & Moring’s Labor and Employment Update, a webinar series dedicated to helping our clients stay on top of developing law and emerging compliance issues.

Many corporations require arbitration of disputes raised by employees, customers and vendors. Arbitration is widely viewed by U.S. businesses as a less expensive way of resolving disputes. Yet, almost five years after the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, the use of mandatory arbitration provisions in form contracts remains controversial. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has proposed regulations that would severely restrict the use of mandatory arbitration provisions in many standard consumer agreements. CFPB's view is that waivers of class arbitrations give companies a "free pass" to "sidestep the legal system." The Supreme Court has two cases pending this Term that involve significant questions regarding the enforceability of form contracts containing mandatory arbitration agreements. Late last year, The New York Times ran a series of articles that strongly criticized the use of mandatory arbitration form agreements as fundamentally unfair to consumers and employees. Other federal regulatory agencies are attempting to restrict mandatory arbitration agreements. Lower courts continue to disagree about the standards for enforcing agreements that waive class action arbitration.

Our panelists will discuss these issues as part of a review of the New Year’s upcoming challenges facing companies seeking to control litigation costs through arbitration agreements.