[2] The company maintains a panel of over 1,600 arbitrators and mediators who are attorneys and former judges located across the United States and in 35 countries around the world.
[10] In 2007, non-profit consumer advocacy group Public Citizen criticized the National Arbitration Forum, including its fee schedule and alleged bias.
In March 2010,[13] a study of the National Arbitration Forum's record of panelist appointments for domain name disputes was published.
[1] The city alleged that the NAF was practicing unethically and wrongly with such specific concerns as ignoring evidence, inflating awards and declining hearing requests by consumers.
[1] In June 2008, Businessweek made broad claims of NAF's bias in favor of consumer creditors and hidden conflict of interest.
[17] On July 14, 2009, the Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson brought a lawsuit against the National Arbitration Forum for consumer fraud, deceptive trade and false statements in advertising.
[18] Key to their complaint was allegations that the NAF had deliberately hidden its ties to the businesses it represented and actively encouraged their naming as mandatory arbitrators in contracts.
However, NAF has been investigated by Minnesota local and state prosecutors for working alongside Mann Bracken authorizing illegitimate arbitration awards against consumers, deceiving the courts and the public.