National Arbitration Forum

California Consumer Arbitration Statistics

Not long ago California enacted a state statute that required arbitration companies to post the results of their consumer arbitration cases. Prior to this statute, the arbitration companies kept this information secret. Consumer advocates have been waiting to see these numbers. The general consensus was that we'd expect the credit card companies to come out with a very high judgment rate against the consumers. The other assumption was that pursuing an offensive case against a credit card lender in arbitration was not practical.

The website linked below from the National Arbitration Forum includes the first statistics on point that I've seen. From my brief review, it seems like most of these cases are collection cases against the consumer, and the cases are settled before the arbitrator makes an award. The settlement amounts aren't published, so there's no way at present to determine if the forum involves situational pressure that coerces a more lender-friendly settlement than would otherwise occur.

Keep in mind, when collectors sue in court, regardless of the court, they usually enjoy a 90+% success rate anyway. From my standpoint as a consumer-oriented attorney, the statistics that would be most interesting would be what happens when the consumer makes an offensive claim against the lender in consumer arbitration. In the brief time that I had to look at these numbers, I didn't find enough info to draw any conclusions.


National Arbitration Forum