Palm Beach Circuit Judge Elizabeth Maass has ruled that thousands of Florida consumers who took out payday loans can bring their claims through class action arbitration, despite a provision barring that in payday loan contracts.
In an order dated Dec. 12, Maass ruled that class action waivers signed by thousands of people who obtained payday loans through Check ‘n Go of Florida Inc., were unconscionable. Maass wrote that “the chance that [the named plaintiff] could have obtained competent counsel absent the possibility of class action status … is effectively zero.”
