Study Shows Arbitration is Fair and Cost-effective For Consumers in Broad Array of Cases

Congress should fully consider evidence like Searle study before eliminating arbitration

By Lisa Rickard
March 11, 2009

The findings released by the Searle Civil Justice Institute today helps prove that arbitration continues to provide consumers with fair, inexpensive, and unbiased access to justice across the broadest spectrum of consumer disputes.

In the arbitrations analyzed, consumers paid an average of $96 in cases with claims seeking less than $10,000 and won relief in more than 53 percent of the cases they filed. The analysis also showed that arbiters protect consumers by strictly enforcing due process rules across the broadest array of disputes, not only in credit card cases but cases involving products and services across the economy.

Congress needs to carefully and fully review studies such as this before it considers bills like the Arbitration Fairness Act, which aims to eliminate an 84-year old system of consumer justice that has worked well for millions of Americans.