Alan Kaplinsky, a Philly lawyer who assists companies in drafting arbitration clauses, says that in many state courts, “unfortunately, there is an orientation towards doing things to protect the plaintiffs’ trial bar, including ruling that consumers, in effect, have an unwaivable right to bring a class action. [read post]

The lineup is three pro-consumer witnesses and one corporate defense lawyer: our co-blogger Paul Bland of Public Justice, who has been leading the fight against BMA in the courts; Jordan Fogal, a consumer with an arbitration horror story; David Schwartz, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin, who will be criticizing the Supreme Court's Federal Arbitration Act jurisprudence as inconsistent with the original Congressional intent; and Mark Levin, a partner at the same… [read post]