CONSUMER ALERT: Growing Calls for Arbitration Reform – Every Day Texans Forfeit Their Rights

New legal filings in a case involving lawyers Nicholas Abaza, Jorge Borunda, and Michael Trevino challenges arbitration decision, and formally reports arbitrator Anne Ashby to the Texas State Bar

Houston, Texas, May 06, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In Texas, there are growing calls from legal scholars, consumer advocates, lawmakers and alleged victims for reforms to make arbitration processes more transparent and equitable. Stop Legal Bullying Now, LLC is raising these concerns statewide.

Legal experts say arbitration was designed as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism, but its current framework may prioritize finality over fairness, especially, as the Allison family claims, when an arbitrator like Anne Ashby fails to disclose significant conflicts that very likely compromised her ability to be fair and neutral in their case.

Under current Texas and federal arbitration law, courts have very narrow grounds to vacate arbitration awards even when serious concerns arise post-judgment, including potential nondisclosure or conflicts of interest. 

Why This Matters to Texans 
Mandatory arbitration clauses are increasingly common in legal contracts — including attorney-client agreements in estate, probate, and family disputes. Many Texans may not realize that signing such clauses can: 

• Forfeit your 7th amendment right to jury trial
• Restrict appellate review  
• Take away the ability to hold attorneys accountable
• Backfire and prevent justice from being served. You can get stuck with a judgment for all costs related to the proceeding. Many companies use the same arbitrator, and the family says there are repeat offenders like Ashby who has negatively impacted many families, not just theirs.

Victim Story 
No one knows that better than siblings Caroline and Richard Allison who are the alleged victims in a Texas arbitration case. 

“We trusted our former lawyers to protect our family, and instead they exploited power and deception to devalue our inheritance while maximizing attorney’s fees. We lost millions due to their horrible advice and the rigged system of arbitration is shielding them from having to take any accountability,” Allison said. “Anne Ashby violated the Texas disciplinary rules and American Arbitration rules requiring disclosure, because she would have had to recuse herself and forfeit her pay. Anne Ashby also failed to follow the law on multiple levels during the arbitration and handed my former lawyers a multimillion judgment procured through fraud."

To fight back the Allisons have filed a bill of review and a formal bar complaint against Dallas-based arbitrator Anne Ashby in connection with a binding arbitration judgment they say deprived them of their rights and prevented courts from evaluating critical evidence in their legal malpractice dispute. The filings spotlight concerns about transparency in arbitration, alleged nondisclosure by Ashby, and the practical implications for Texans who unknowingly forfeit their right to a jury trial. 

The bill of review — a rarely invoked legal claim — argues that newly discovered information in the Allison’s case could not have been raised earlier due to the restrictive nature of arbitration and the absence of judicial review. The bar complaint raises questions about attorney conduct and disclosure practices long before the arbitration began. 

A new investigative video titled Damn Lawyers 3: A Deception by Dolcefino Media details what the family says was contrived fraud, a planned deception that involved their former lawyers—Nicholas Abaza, Jorge Borunda, and Micheal Trevino—as well as arbitrator Anne Ashby. Contrived fraud is not just a misrepresentation of facts, but a deliberately manufactured scheme created to deceive, trick, and take advantage of innocent individuals.  

"This conduct should be investigated fully. I don't blame the Allison's for wanting a refund," says Wayne Dolcefino, President of Dolcefino Media. "Our Damn Lawyers investigation on social media exposes serious conflicts of interests which were not fully disclosed. This whole deal stinks."
  
What the New Filings Allege: 
The bill of review and bar complaint, together, focus on serious procedural and ethical issues including: 

• Allegations from the family that Ashby’s disclosures were incomplete or misleading, preventing meaningful evaluation of impartiality  
• Evidence that emerged after the arbitration award that the family says could not be presented due to arbitration’s rules  
• Questions about attorney conduct leading up to the arbitration, including what the family claims as an aggressive litigation strategy driven solely by the attorney’s desire to maximize their profits from a clients’ inheritance via unethical contingency fee arrangements. 

The Allisons are also fighting for real change in the arbitration process that would protect all Texans.  

While the overhaul or elimination of arbitration is the Allison's long-term goal, several steps can be taken to protect individuals from this process in the meantime, including: 

• Allowing full judicial review on at least 2 conditions: 1) If an arbitrator fails to fully disclose all conflicts, as required by law; 2) If an arbitrator fails to follow the law during the arbitration proceedings
• Ensuring that consumers have the opportunity to consult independent counsel before agreeing to arbitration clauses and/or “opt out” of arbitration altogether
• Creating processes for courts to consider newly discovered evidence post-arbitration when bias, nondisclosure, or ethical concerns arise  

"As per our allegations in the bill of review, our former attorneys Nick Abaza, Jorge Borunda, and Michael Trevino created a fake dispute for profit, dragging my family into high conflict litigation. Our inheritance was guaranteed, but they never explained that to us. As soon as we became suspicious, they invoked the hidden arbitration clause," said Allison. "According to my legal malpractice attorney, we had a 90% chance of winning our arbitration based on the laws in place. However, once our attorneys found Anne Ashby, who failed to disclose significant material conflicts of interest that compromised her neutrality, they staged a fake arbitration, attempting to make it look legitimate so they could garner a multi-million-dollar award. They thought they wouldn’t get caught. But they did. They all did.”

Caroline Allison is prepared to speak with media about their filings, the implications for Texas consumers, and why transparency and accountability in arbitration matters now. Copies of the bar complaint and bill of review are also available.  

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