Contact: Michelle Widmann
American Association for Justice
202-944-2859
AAJ Press Room
AAJ Response to SCOTUS Decision in CompuCredit v. Greenwood
Washington, DC—The following is a statement from American Association for Justice (AAJ) President Gary M. Paul in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in CompuCredit Corp and Synovus Bank v. Wanda Greenwood:
“With this ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court has given corporations a way to escape accountability by forcing consumers into a rigged and biased forced arbitration process, even when Congress expressly provides a remedy in a court of law.
“It has become abundantly clear that the Federal Arbitration Act does not work for consumers and employees. The reality is that corporations hide forced arbitration clauses in the fine print of their take-it-or-leave-it contracts, hand-pick their own biased arbiter, and then leave consumers and employees with high fees and no opportunity for justice or accountability.
“There is a very big difference between the justice provided by America’s court system and the forced arbitration process. It is time for Congress to pass the Arbitration Fairness Act to protect consumers and employees from these abusive practices.”
The Center for Constitutional Litigation filed an amicus brief on behalf of AAJ in support of the respondent, Greenwood, advocating the critical differences between the right to a trial by jury and forced arbitration. This brief can be found here.
