H.R. 1423 Introduced to Eliminate Forced Arbitration in Discrimination Disputes

According to an article in CNBC, the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, September 10, 2019, passed a bipartisan bill known as H.R. 1423, the Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal Act, that would end forced arbitration in most legal civil rights cases. Experts say they expect the legislation to pass in the full House as well.

In the FAIR bill, the term ‘civil rights dispute’ means a dispute means arising from an alleged violation of:

“(i) the Constitution of the United States or the constitution of a State;

“(ii) any Federal, State, or local law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, sex, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, religion, national origin, or any legally protected status in education, employment, credit, housing, public accommodations and facilities, voting, veterans or servicemembers, health care, or a program funded or conducted by the Federal Government or State government, including any law referred to or described in section 62(e) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, including parts of such law not explicitly referenced in such section but that relate to protecting individuals on any such basis.

The FAIR Act, if enacted, would eliminate companies’ ability to use forced arbitration clauses in any employment, consumer and civil rights cases and allow Americans to fight their lawsuits in federal court. If consumers and employees did want to use arbitration, they still could, but it would be a voluntarily process, as opposed to their only option.