The National Arbitration Forum Blog

Overlawyered.com, a web resource “chronicling the high cost of our legal system,” recently compiled several empirical studies addressing consumer and employee win rates in arbitration. The published studies and empirical data indicate that employees and consumers prevail at a rate that is greater than or equal to litigation, where similar subject matter is at issue.

The data Ted Frank discussed includes:

Michael Delikat & Morris M. Kleiner, An Empirical Study of Dispute Resolution Mechanisms: Where Do Plaintiffs Better Vindicate Their Rights?, 58 Dispute Resolution Journal 56, 57-58 (2004).

Employee claimants prevailed 46% of the time in arbitration compared to 34% in federal court.

Lewis L. Maltby, Private Justice: Employment Arbitration and Civil Rights, 30 Colum. Hum. Rts. L. Rev. 29, 45-48 (1998).

Employees prevailed over employers in 63% of employment arbitration cases filed with the American Arbitration Association between 1993 and 1995. To compare, only 14.9% of employees who brought cases to federal district court in 1994 prevailed in their litigation.

Mark Fellows, The Same Results As In Court, More Efficiently: Comparing Arbitration And Court Litigation Outcomes, Metropolitan Corporate Counsel 32 (July 2006).

When consumers bring arbitration claims against businesses, the consumers prevail in 65.5% of cases that reach a decision. To compare, buyer plaintiffs litigating contract claims in the 75 largest American counties prevailed 61.5% of the time overall, and 60.9% of the time in cases decided by bench trials. When businesses bring arbitration claims against California consumers, the businesses prevail in 77.7% of cases that reach a decision. To compare, seller plaintiffs litigating contract cases in the largest 75 counties prevail 76.8% of the time overall and 78.9% of the time in cases decided by bench trial.

The benefits of arbitration have made it a vital element of the modern civil justice system. These benefits include the same outcomes as in court, affordability, speed, efficiency, fairness, flexibility, taxpayer savings and legal enforceability.