Arbitration Update - Thursday, September 25, 2008 8:47 - 0 Comments

The Chamber of Commerce’s research on arbitration is flawed

Two recent papers published or financially supported by the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform paint a grossly inaccurate picture of the empirical evidence on binding mandatory arbitration, a comprehensive study by Public Citizen reveals. Both papers were written by Catholic University law professor Peter B. Rutledge. One was issued by the Chamber Institute as an official response to a September 2007 Public Citizen report that found that consumers lost nearly 94% of credit-card disputes administered by the National Arbitration Forum. The second paper was published as a law review article. Collectively, these “Chamber papers” purported to show that the broad sweep of empirical academic research suggests that individuals enjoy “superior” results in arbitration, notwithstanding anecdotal evidence suggesting otherwise.

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