Senate Hearings: Bartholet on NAF

Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee again held hearings on how recent Supreme Court decisions affect the everyday lives of Americans. Professor Elizabeth Bartholet of Harvard Law School testified about mandatory binding arbitration in both the employment and consumer context. As part of her testimony, she recites her own experience as an arbitrator for the National Arbitration Forum or "NAF" (for information on NAF, see previous Credit Slips posts here, here, here, here and here). Professor Bartholet summarizes this portion of her testimony thusly:

All this, together with my other experience as an arbitrator, and my reading of the literature, is what has led me to conclude that the Supreme Court's approval of pre-dispute arbitration has led to a private justice system in which banks and credit card companies are able to purchase the results they want, at the expense of the debtors forced into the system.

Professor Bartholet's full statement is available here so that you can read for yourself what caused her to come to this conclusion.