On this dormant thread there’s some good news from Vox:
Lawmakers voted 225-186 Friday to pass the Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal (FAIR) Act, a far-reaching bill that bans companies from requiring workers and consumers to resolve legal disputes in private arbitration — a quasi-legal forum with no judge, no jury, and practically no government oversight.
These clauses, which are common in employment and consumer contracts, have made it impossible for workers to sue their bosses in court for sexual harassment, racial discrimination, wage theft, and nearly anything else. Workers are less likely to win their cases in private arbitration, and when they do win, they tend to get much less money than they would in court.
It still needs to pass the Senate and win the President’s signature, but perhaps this is a long-awaited step towards the return to public, rather than private, justice. Perhaps this time, rather than tossing out the baby with the bathwater, the approach to public justice for such things as class actions lawsuits can be adjusted, rather than erased.
