Arbitration clause
A contract term forcing disputes into private tribal arbitration instead of court — increasingly struck down.
What "arbitration clause" means
Tribal loan agreements almost always include a mandatory arbitration clause routing any dispute into private arbitration under the tribe's own rules, rather than to a state court or a class action. It's the main shield tribal lenders use to avoid having their rates judged under state law.
That shield is cracking: the Second Circuit called these clauses unconscionable in Gingras v. Think Finance (2019), and the Seventh Circuit threw out WithU Loans' clause in 2026 because it pointed to tribal law that didn't yet exist. Because arbitration costs the lender thousands per case, demanding it on a small balance can also make collection uneconomical.