Author : Tamar Meshel
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (137 download)
Book Synopsis Mobile-Based Transportation Companies, Mandatory Arbitration, and the Americans with Disabilities Act by : Tamar Meshel
Download or read book Mobile-Based Transportation Companies, Mandatory Arbitration, and the Americans with Disabilities Act written by Tamar Meshel and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and similar mobile-based transportation network companies (TNCs) have been involved in numerous legal battles in multiple jurisdictions. One contested issue concerns TNCs' use of mandatory (pre-dispute) arbitration clauses in their standard form service agreements with both drivers and passengers. These arbitration clauses purport to obligate such future plaintiffs to resolve any dispute with the defendant TNC outside of court and, typically, on an individual rather than a class basis. In particular, TNCs have been increasingly litigating disability-based discrimination claims brought against them and/or their drivers pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). These claims have largely arisen in two situations, examined in this article. The first situation is where the plaintiffs have not downloaded or used the defendant TNC's mobile application due to the absence of accessible vehicles. These “potential passengers” have brought discrimination claims against the defendant TNC in court for its failure to provide accessible vehicles that they could use. TNCs in such cases have raised two main lines of arguments: an ADA-based argument and an arbitration-based argument. The TNCs' ADA-based argument posits that the plaintiffs do not have standing to bring the discrimination claims under the ADA since they had not in fact used the TNC's mobile application and therefore have not suffered the required “injury” to have standing under the Act. Where the plaintiff potential passengers have been found to have such standing nonetheless, the TNCs have put forward an alternative arbitration-based argument -- that the plaintiffs should be bound by the arbitration clause contained in the service agreement, which they did not sign, and that their claims should therefore be referred to arbitration. The second situation in which disability-based discrimination claims under the ADA have been brought against TNCs is where the plaintiffs downloaded the mobile application, agreed to the terms of service, and used the ride-share services. These plaintiff passengers are then typically obligated to argue their discrimination claims in arbitration in light of the arbitration clause contained in the TNCs service agreement. Indeed, TNCs seem to prefer arbitration to litigation in court, a preference that some have criticized as a strategy designed to prevent plaintiffs from vindicating their legal rights. However, a recent arbitration decision rendered against Uber in an ADA discrimination case discussed in this article illustrates that arbitration is able to provide the same legal protection to plaintiffs' rights as a court.
