Forced Arbitration

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Forced Arbitration 

The Devil is In the Details

In the News

“When employees and consumers sign contracts that require binding arbitration of disputes, they are surrendering their right to go to court to resolve even serious disagreements.”
The Plain Dealer
1/18/10

“The Minnesota attorney general sued the forum in July, accusing it of consumer fraud because its business arrangement allegedly created conflicts of interest. The company agreed to stop handling consumer arbitration disputes.”
Baltimore Sun
1/16/10
 
“Jamie Leigh Jones was a 20-year-old young woman working her fourth day on the job in Baghdad for contractor Halliburton/KBR in 2005, when she says she was drugged and gang-raped by seven U.S contractors and held captive by two KBR guards in a shipping container. But more than four years after the alleged crimes occurred, Jones is still waiting for her day in court because when she signed her employment contract, she lost her rights to a jury trial and, instead, was forced into having her claims decided through secret, binding arbitration.”
ABC News
10/7/09

  Forced arbitration clauses are hidden in the fine print of various consumer contracts, which run the gamut from credit cards and cell phone contracts to nursing home care and employee contracts.  Consumers and employees are often forced to sign these clauses in order to receive services or get hired.  In the event of a dispute with the corporation, mandatory binding arbitration says that a consumer or an employee cannot take their case to court but instead to a private arbitration forum.  Often times the company picks the arbiter who will decide the outcome.  The consumer can never take legal action and forced arbitration applies even if a consumer is seriously injured by a product or service.  Americans overwhelmingly disapprove of froced arbitration (81 percent) when presented with all the facts.
Read how Forced arbitration hurts nursing home residents like William Kurth »  
 


Forced Arbitration Highlights



More Background

The Facts—Forced Arbitration 

The Facts—Nursing Home Arbitration Preys on Vulnerable Seniors

Support Letter—Broad Support for the Arbitration Fairness Act

Support Letter Co-signers—Broad Support for the Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act

Research

Nursing Home Statistics—Nursing Homes by the Numbers
 
Americans’ Opinions on Binding Mandatory Arbitration

Searle Institute Report Shows Mandatory Arbitration Favors Corporations Over Consumers 

In Their Own Words

The Truth About Nursing Home Arbitration—Key quotes from testimony before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law on Nursing Home Arbitration


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