A New Legal Framework for Employee and Consumer Arbitration Agreements

This Article is divided into three main sections. The first section provides an overview of the FAA, and the second section explores how arbitration clauses with oppressive terms give rise to multiple harms. The concluding section of the Article demonstrates the many problems that arise from a court's mere severance of harsh terms, and discusses how the history, policy, and text of the FAA require courts to adopt an invalidation approach. As a result of the automatic and complete invalidation of the entire arbitration agreement for containing a harsh term, a consumer or employee, like the victims of sexual harassment at Jared Jewelers, would be able to assert and litigate his or her claims in court, with all the applicable due process and broad procedural protections available in the court system.