Academic

Watchdog Blog Bites Arbitration for Business Bent

By http://www.law.uh.edu/faculty/main.asp?PID=1 (Rich

Public Citizen's Watchdog Blog discusses a new report that concludes that arbitrators rule for business between 94 and 97 percent of the time.

In a nutshell, [binding mandatory arbitration] is a private, corporate-dominated secret "court" that overwhelmingly rules against consumers. In this world, merely by signing your name on the dotted line, you have forfeited your right to a trial by jury. If someone steals your identity and runs out to buy a $4,000 plasma TV – and the credit card company wants YOU to pay for it – the dispute will automatically bypass the public civil justice system. Instead, it goes straight to an arbitrator who may have heard thousands of cases for that same credit card company.

I am among the many critics who have assailed consumer arbitration.  This report documents how consumer arbitration is designed not to offer an alternative forum, but rather to deny consumers their legal rights.

Full post as published by University of Houston Law Center Faculty Blog on October 02, 2007 (boomark / email).