Newspaper calls out binding arbitration, but forces clause on its own consumers

Legal Newsline quotes Ted Frank in their discussion of courts' efforts to bar class action lawsuits which demonstrate greater concern for trial-lawyers than for consumer's interest.

In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Concepcion that companies can enforce contracts that bar class action lawsuits.

Frank, in a 2010 blog post leading up to the Supreme Court ruling, noted that the firm — like other plaintiffs’ lawyers — required clients to agree to mandatory arbitration of disputes pursuant to a form contract.

“Just further evidence that the anti-arbitration movement in Congress and the courts is purely about protecting trial-lawyer income, and has nothing to do with consumers,” Frank wrote in the blog post, linking to a copy of a contract provided by a former Nicholas client.

“We’ll believe that the trial lawyers really think arbitration hurts consumers when they start passing legislation banning mandatory arbitration clauses in attorney-client contracts.”