The American Arbitration Association (AAA) is considering potential changes to its Commercial Arbitration Rules and has put out a notice asking for suggestions by e-mail [email protected] by September 1, 2009. AAA, a private enterprise, was founded in 1926 following the enactment of the Federal Arbitration Act, with the specific goal of helping to implement arbitration as an out-of-court solution to resolving disputes.
But this formal notice is curious, coming on the heels of a bill, H.R. 3010, introduced as the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2007, in an effort to ban pre-dispute mandatory binding arbitration, between businesses and consumers and employers and employees in their respective transactions and relationship issues.
Recently, there has been a concerted lobbying effort by these groups to expose what they consider to be the unfairness of the current law. This decision to arbitrate future disputes is contained in an “arbitration clause†in their agreements, requiring that if a dispute arises the parties cannot go to court; they must arbitrate their complaint. Read full article.