Page 67 - Impact: Collected Essays on Expanding Access to Justice

2010 through 2012, cheated consumers alone filed on average only about 400 arbitration cases each year for six product markets combined – credit card, checking account/debit cards, payday loans, prepaid cards, private student loans and auto loans .43 The agency found that consumers had counsel “in roughly 60% of the cases” but “companies almost always had counsel .”44 In addition, “[a]lmost all of the arbitration proceedings involved companies with repeat experience in the forum,” and consumers prevailed in a little over 20 percent of cases filed in 2010 and 2011 that were resolved by an arbitrator while companies prevailed in 93 percent of cases in which companies made claims or counterclaims that were resolved by arbitrators .45
By contrast, CFPB’s review of 419 federal consumer financial class action settlements during this time period found that “the total amount of gross relief – defined as the total amount defendants offer to provide in cash relief (including debt forbearance) or in-kind relief and to pay in fees and other expenses was $2 .7 billion,” and covered 350 million class members .46
Conclusion
Our uniquely-American civil justice system is a cornerstone of our democracy, fundamental to protecting individual rights and liberties, ensuring public health and safety and restraining abuses of power . Even the late conservative Chief Justice William Rehnquist wrote eloquently in defense of the right to civil jury trial, instructing that “a right so fundamental and sacred to the citizen ... should be jealously guarded .”47 Unfortunately, as a nation we are not doing a very good job guarding this right . The civil justice system is an embattled and vulnerable institution in the United States . Corporations and their insurers have been at the forefront of attacks on civil judges and juries as industries seek to limit corporate liability exposure by blocking access to the courts by everyday people . But Rehnquist’s admonition should give pause to any government leader intent on further weakening our civil justice system . This nation fought a grueling and bloody war to win these freedoms . We should not have to re-fight those battles within our own country today . •
43 Id. at Section 1, 11.
44 Id. at Section 1, 12.
45 Id.
46 Id. at Section 1, 16 & Section 8, 4-5.
47 Parklane hosiery Co. Inc. v. Shore, 439 u.S. 322, 352 (1979) (Rehnquist, J., dissenting).
Specific Areas for Reform: Tort Liability
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