Personal Injury Law

In a column in Bloomberg News Susan Antill writes that the Chamber of Commerce's "'Faces of Lawsuit Abuse' ad campaign is but a piece of a larger publicity war that's heating up as legislators begin considering the merits of the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2009, introduced Feb. 12 by Georgia Congressman Henry Johnson." The legislation "would invalidate so-called 'mandatory arbitration' contracts that say the courts can't be used in the event of a dispute." She adds that "consumer groups have long decried the practice of forcing consumers, investors and employees to forgo their rights to court before they can even purchase a cell phone, open a securities account, or get a job." She says that Alexander Colvin, "a labor professor at Cornell University, published a study in January that examined employment dispute statistics from the American Arbitration Association" and is concerned "that 'repeat player bias' is at work, with arbitrators favoring employers in hopes of being selected for future hearings."

From the American Association for Justice news release.