Introduction

A commonly cited reason that businesses include arbitration clauses in their contracts with consumers is to avoid jury trials.[1] From the perspective of businesses, replacing a jury with an arbitrator "provides much-needed protection from the unpredictability of jury awards, which, in recent years, have been known to reach astronomical heights -- awards that appear inappropriate even to the most objective observer."[2] From the perspective of consumer advocates, businesses choose arbitration to "decrease their likely payout" by avoiding juries, which they believe "will often be ...