AT&T v. Concepcion

by Nicole Flatow

In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2011 ruling limiting class actions in AT&T v. Concepcion, the National Labor Relations Board issued a ruling that gave hope to those seeking to hold their employers accountable.

The ruling invalidated an arbitration agreement that blocked employees from banding together as a class, and it was grounded in a provision of the National Labor Relations Act that protects employees’ right to act collectively. But in the months since the January ruling, all but a few courts have declined to adopt the NLRB’s reasoning, signaling that the administrative decision may not have the impact some had hoped.

Thompson Reuters’ Nate Raymond looks at 16 federal and state court decisions over the past seven months, and finds that 13 of them disregarded the NLRB’s decision. Some found that the Federal Arbitration Act controlled; others that only the Supreme Court’s Concepcion decision applies.

The initial NLRB decision, D.R. Horton, is still pending on appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. And in one decision that did adopt the NLRB’s reasoning, the court distinguished Concepcion, which did not involve a conflict with the NLRA. But thus far, courts have signaled that the NLRB’s decision will have little impact on employees’ access to justice.

D.R. Horton is not the only case with the potential to preserve some limits on arbitration clauses.

by Nicole Flatow

Access to the courts is under assault on a number of fronts, at a time when more and more people have legal issues arising from the economic downturn, The Huffington Post reports.

At the state level, slashed state court budgets have become a serious concern, resulting in significant staff resource cuts, reduced operating hours, increased fees and cases delayed for as long as ten years. “[M]any court advocates bristle that the third branch of government is being treated as nothing more than a state agency begging for scraps,” the article notes.

Meanwhile, “the attack on courts at the state level is coinciding with one of the worst federal judicial crises the country has seen,” the article explains. Just last night, the Senate recessed for a full month without voting on 20 fully vetted nominees.

Then there are legal services organizations, which are suffering blows in federal, state and private funding. While the economic downturn meant cuts to local and state funding for many organizations, and a loss of other sources of revenue such as Interest on Lawyer Accounts and private donations, the House Appropriations Committee has proposed a 26-percent cut to the Legal Services Corporation budget, which would require legal services organizations to turn away some 235,000 people, according to LSC estimates.

All of this means that people coming into the court system without representation have nowhere to turn for help.

“When people don't have a lawyer to represent them and explain the court system's complicated procedures to them, they need extra assistance from judicial staff -- who are now in short supply because of the budget cuts,” the article explains.