Chicago Business Litigation Lawyer Blog
Despite claiming it’s ready to make amends to its customers after multiple scandals involving things like opening bank accounts and lines of credit for its customers without their notice or consent, overdraft fees, and fraudulent car loans, Wells Fargo’s CEO, Timothy Sloan, recently testified before the Senate Banking Committee to defend the bank’s use of arbitration agreements.
This is in spite of the fact that the bank has said it will not enforce its arbitration agreements with the class of consumers seeking compensation for the money lost and damage done to their credit ratings as a result of the false accounts the bank opened on their behalf. Without the option to file a class action lawsuit against the bank, each customer would have been forced into individual arbitration, the cost of which would likely have caused many to abandon the case if the costs of filing were more than their claims were worth.
Most cases never make it through arbitration because of the cost, the inability to file as a class or collective action, and the private nature of arbitration that prevents people from becoming aware of legal actions with claims similar to theirs. And yet banks and Big Business advocates continue to insist that arbitration benefits consumers more than class action or collective action lawsuits.
Sloan even cited a study conducted by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) that Sloan claimed proved consumers received more redress from arbitration than collective actions or class actions. Continue reading ›