Boston Globe on family’s post-tragedy battle with Bank of America

There are numerous stories about consumers victimized by forced arbitration; each one raising the need for a federal law to ban forced arbitration clauses from all consumer contracts. On Sunday, Boston Globe reporter Beth Healy reported a particularly sad account of a family’s fight against Bank of America following the death of a husband and father. According to the article, Philip Grossman committed suicide after the family lost much of its savings from its encounter with a BoA broker. The family tried to sue Bank of America but was denied access to the court because of an arbitration clause in Mr. Grossman’s brokerage account documents. As Healy observed: "The Grossmans’ case shows how entrenched arbitration has become in the financial industry, demonstrating that even in an extreme case alleging wrongful death, aggrieved clients have no recourse other than a system that critics say favors investment firms."