Massachusetts follows at least six other state supreme courts that have issued similar decisions between 2005 and 2008, including California, Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina and Washington. The U.S. courts of appeals for the 1st, 2d, 3d and 9th circuits have also weighed in with similar rulings from 2006 to 2009.
The July 2 Massachusetts opinion in Feeney v. Dell Inc., which was authored by Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall following a hearing attended by five of the seven justices, called Dell’s consumer contracts compelling individual arbitration “not enforceable.”
