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Arbitration for me, but not for thee

By Walter Olson, Ted Frank, and David Nieporent

The Civil Justice Association of California says it so well, we might as well just quote them:

?Fee arbitration offers cheaper, faster alternative to litigation.? Where did that headline run? Give up? In the California Bar Journal, the ?Official Publication of the State Bar of California! The story beneath it praises fee arbitration between lawyers and clients, saying that arbitrators are reporting that their work ?gives people immediate results, unlike protracted litigation.?

The Bar?s presiding arbitrator, Arne Werchick, is quoted as saying: ?It?s a neutral program that gives everyone a fair shake.?

We hope Mr. Werchick, who was president of the trial lawyers association in 1980, sends copies of the article to personal injury and other plaintiffs? lawyers in Sacramento and Washington. They are once again firing up their endless campaign to block people?s constitutional right to contract to settle future disputes by arbitration rather than going to court.

Separately, ABC News parrots the trial-lawyer line with misleading coverage of another arbitration involving Tracy Barker: they falsely report that Barker's lawsuit was "killed" (when it will in fact be heard in the forum that Barker contractually agreed to litigate in), that the proceedings will be "secret" (when Barker has the right to publicize them the same way she can publicize a trial), and waits until deep into the story to acknowledge that the arbitration clause does not prohibit the employee from bringing litigation against her alleged rapist. Where's John Stossel and "Give Me A Break" when you need him?

For more on the litigation lobby's battle against arbitration, see the Overlawyered arbitration section.

Full post as published by Overlawyered on February 07, 2008 (boomark / email).