Sponsors (67)
The bill restores broad access to courts and collective remedies for workers, consumers, civil-rights plaintiffs, and small businesses—strengthening enforcement and deterrence—but increases litigation exposure and costs for defendants, may slow some disputes, and could reduce transparency or leave some arbitration-driven barriers in place depending on implementation.
Millions of workers, consumers, civil-rights plaintiffs, and small businesses regain the ability to go to court and pursue class or collective remedies instead of being forced into individual arbitration, improving chances of relief, enforcement, and deterrence.
Consumers and small businesses are better able to pursue collective or antitrust actions against widespread or anti-competitive harms, increasing the likelihood of meaningful recovery and deterrence.
Placing the new rules in a consolidated chapter of Title 9 and updating cross-references creates clearer, more uniform statutory guidance for arbitration-related claims, reducing ambiguity for courts and attorneys and potentially speeding case processing.
Employers and other defendants may face significantly higher litigation costs and larger, less-predictable liabilities from increased court and class-action exposure, which could lead to higher prices, reduced hiring, or altered contracting by businesses.
Moving disputes from arbitration to courts may lengthen resolution times for many claimants, creating slower outcomes and delayed relief compared with faster arbitration processes.
If the new Title 9 chapter preserves or expands mandatory arbitration clauses in some contexts, certain workers, low-income individuals, people with disabilities, and immigrants could still be blocked from accessing courts and collective remedies.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Bars predispute arbitration clauses and class-waivers for future employment, consumer, antitrust, and civil-rights disputes while allowing voluntary post-dispute arbitration.
Introduced September 15, 2025 by Hank Johnson · Last progress September 15, 2025
Prohibits predispute arbitration agreements that force people or businesses to resolve future employment, consumer, antitrust, or civil-rights disputes in private arbitration instead of court, and bans contract terms that bar individuals, workers, or small businesses from joining together in class, collective, or joint actions for those types of claims. The law becomes effective on enactment for disputes that arise or accrue on or after that date, while preserving the parties’ right to agree to arbitration after a specific dispute has already arisen.