26 August 2011

Good For the Goose, Good For the Gander

After making civil procedure history by establishing the principle that customer disputes against it must be pursued in arbitration one customer at a time, AT&T is now shocked that customers are bringing antitrust suits against it one at a time in arbitration cases rather than on a class action basis as they otherwise would have and are asking the federal courts to stop the madness and enjoin the arbitration cases. Apparently, nobody told AT&T that their ability to choose a forum by contract does not include a right to ignore substantive law established by Congress as well.

If At&T wanted to carve certain cases out of the arbitration clauses that they wrote, they could have done so. Now, turnabout is fair play.

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