Experts to Congress: Block forced arbitration in workplace discrimination, consumer cases
April 10, 2023
(Courthouse News Services) “Former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson joined a group of witnesses Tuesday in urging the Senate Judiciary Committee to crack down on a corporate procedure that they argue robs victims of workplace discrimination and consumers of their day in court.
Carlson, who in 2016 sued former Fox News chair Roger Ailes on sexual harassment charges, told lawmakers during a hearing that her high-profile case “could have been easily swept under the rug like countless others” by a corporate practice known as forced arbitration.
Often found as a provision in employment contracts or consumer terms of service, forced arbitration clauses bar the signer from filing a lawsuit against a company in the event of a dispute — instead pushing the case into a private arbitration process with a third-party mediator.”
