The Class Action Fairness Act Does Not Supersede The Federal Arbitration Act

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• The Sixth Circuit became the first Circuit Court to hold that the Federal Arbitration Act ("FAA") and the Class Action Fairness Act ("CAFA") do not conflict.
• As a result, plaintiffs within this jurisdiction can no longer argue that class action waiver provisions in consumer contracts should be overridden because the CAFA gives exclusive jurisdiction to the federal courts for class actions.

On March 19, 2018, Plaintiff Lorraine Adell filed a class action complaint in Ohio federal court against Verizon Wireless, seeking damages arising from Verizon's imposition of certain administrative charges. The district court kicked Plaintiff's case out of federal court and compelled the parties to arbitrate because there was no dispute that Plaintiff signed a Customer Agreement with Verizon Wireless: 1) requiring that disputes arising under the Customer Agreement be resolved by arbitration; and 2) requiring the bilateral, rather than class, arbitration