Help Support The Arbitration Fairness Act of 2007!!!
Congress is presently considering this bill, please call or write your local Congress man/woman and show support for this proposed Act which would help consumers as well as working class people. The Act, if passed, would make these types of binding arbitration clauses UNENFORCEABLE.
This is great news for the consumer, because those types of clauses are usually the “kiss of death” for the consumer, in that arbitrators rule for big business.
As you may know, every person in the United States who has a credit card, buys a car, signs up for a cell phone plan, or enters into any other kind of consumer transaction has a mandatory arbitration agreement that is binding on them if a dispute arises. (This means that in the contract you signed, you bargained away your right to file a lawsuit).
Usually, alternative dispute resolution is a good idea. However, it is not a good idea when there is such a grossly unfair and inadequate meeting of the minds, unequal market power, and thus, no negotiating of the rights involved took place at all. Further, who pays the arbitrators in question? Why, big business, in fact the same big business that had you sign the contract in the first place!
It is as true with arbitrators as any other folks, that old saying, “Never bite the hand that feeds you.” So, arbitrators usually find/rule for big business, because to do otherwise would get them “blackballed.”
Like latin phrases in the law, the true meaning has be twisted until the true translation is unrecognizeable; so too it is this way with binding arbitration clauses in comsumer transactions — they were meant to help consumers and level the playing field when big business is involved.
“The very essence of civil liberty certainly consists in the right of every individual to claim protection of the laws whenever he receives an injury.”
Marbury v. Madison (1803) (John Marshall)