Supreme Court Eviscerates Class Action Law Suits

[DontSayBanana]

Worst ruling since corporate campaign contributions.

Of course, if we got on Congress to actually codify a class-action tort right, there'd be no issue, since contracts can't void law.

They did codify it - Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.  But that is not relevant here because this case concerned an agreement to arbitrate disputes and thus the relevant law is not the FRCP but the Federal Arbitration Act.

Contra the OP, this case is not about whether as a general matter, or as a matter of federal or constitutional law, parties to a contract can, via and agreement to arbitrate claims, waive the right to proceed as a class action.  They can and that is unexceptional.  Nothing in the FAA prohibits that.

The actual question in this case is whether an individual state can, through its own state contract law, effectively invalidate such waivers with respect to arbitration agreements entered into within its jurisdiction.  Thus, what was actually at issue in the case was not consumer rights per se, but rather a conflict between national policy as expressed in the FAA, and state policy as expressed in state contract rules.

The irony here is that the "conservative" justices who usually give great respect for federalism and state policy voted that the national policy should prevail  whereas the "liberal" justices that typically emphasize the supremacy of national policy voted to vindicate the state policy here.

Which just goes to show that activism and results-orientation is universal to the judiciary and crosses ideological lines.  Jerome Frank triumphant.

Ah, so it was basically a supremacy clause issue wrapped up in fancy wording.  Gotcha.  I understood that it was a mountain from a molehill- I just picked the wrong molehill.

[dps]

Really, if you have a dispute with a large organization in which the financial stake is pretty small, there's no good way to resolve it through the system, whether in the courts, via arbitration, or some other method.  Nine times out of ten, your best bet is to just complain to people within the company or organization itself--if you make enough of a fuss, you'll usually get to a point where someone with a bit of authority will just sign off on giving you what you want.

Note here that by "pretty small", I'm talking about stuff like a $15 dollar overcharge on your phone bill.

[Admiral Yi]

Another way that seems to work is to convince your local news consumer reporter to carry the story.