Last week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) finalized a new rule that prohibits most credit card issuers and banking institutions from requiring consumers to enter into mandatory arbitration agreements that bar collective action lawsuits. 

Professor Donna Shestowsky, University of California, Davis – School of Law, has written an interesting research paper titled, “When Ignorance is Not Bliss: An Empirical Study of Litigants’ Awareness Of Court-Sponsored Alternative Dispute Resolution Programs,” to be published in Volume 22 (Spring 2017) of the Harvard Negotiation Law Review; UC Davis Legal Studies Research Paper.

Professor of Legal Practice Elayne E. Greenberg, Assistant Dean of Dispute Resolution Programs and Director of the Hugh L. Carey Center for Dispute Resolution at St. John’s University School of Law, has authored “When the Empty ADR Chair Is Occupied by a Litigation Funder,” NYSBA New York Dispute Resolution Lawyer, Vol. 10, No. 17, Spring 2017; St. John’s Legal Studies Research Paper No. 17-0007.

The Supreme Court of Texas has granted a group of payday loan customers’ request to review a putative class action case after the Fourth Court of Appeals in San Antonio ordered the customers to individually arbitrate their claims.