Bridget McCormack

And you might think, oh, that's, you know, kind of a low number.

And, you know, if you're shooting free throws and probably it is a low number, but if you're landing planes, not a great number, right?

And I think the, you know, the criminal justice system should be more like landing planes.

Yeah.

So let me unpack a couple of things you said.

I completely agree that the declining trust institutions is the courts are part of that problem.

And in fact, the National Center for State Courts kind of tracks that.

And I think their data shows declining trust in the courts.

Frankly, that declining trust is faster in the federal courts than the state courts.

But but even the state courts are struggling with that.

I happen to believe that the way most Americans are locked out of our formal justice system is as important to that declining trust as any other factor, and there are other factors.

Imagine like any other public good, you know, imagine if we said, if you want to drive on the highway, you can do that, but you have to hire a driver.

Or, oh, you want to register your kid for public school?

No problem.

It's a public good, but...

You're going to have to hire a special person who will go, you know, sign you up for public school because otherwise it's in Latin and you can't understand it.

Like we would never accept that.

But we accept that most Americans are locked out of their formal justice system because they I don't know why, because we set up a legal system 250 years ago and the legal profession is better than any other at avoiding any disruption.

Yeah.

But to the second part of your question, I do think that there has been a narrative that if your consumer contract, whether you bought an appliance or a cell phone or sometimes employment contracts, designate arbitration as the forum for resolving disputes, that that must mean this is not going to go well for you.