May 3, 2012

Wall Street’s Legal Magic Ends an American Right

Buying a Starbucks gift card? You are agreeing to mandatory arbitration of any fraud or misrepresentation by the company.

American business entered its Teflon era on a spring day 25 years ago.

Lawyer Madelaine Eppenstein had taken the morning off from work for a parent-teacher event at her 5-year-old’s elementary school on June 8, 1987, when she was summoned to the principal’s office for an urgent call. Her husband and law partner, Theodore Eppenstein, told her they lost the Supreme Court case he had argued two months before on behalf of a couple trying to sue their stockbroker for fraud. […] Read Article