Friday, December 27, 2013

Big business requires more oversight from government

The Arbitration Trap (Click on this heading to read more)

You can't generally just opt out of this forced arbitration. The provisions are baked in to the products we use every day. Our cell phones, cable and Internet. Credit cards, payday loans, car loans, mortgages. Car rental contracts. You can hardly talk or move or buy anything without signing away your rights.
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It's bad enough that thousands of people every day are signing away a core constitutional right without realizing it. But the problem with mandatory arbitration isn't just that you can't get a trial. It's that the arbitration people are stuck with is so unfair.
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Arbitration is not just a friendly, low-hassle, let's-talk-it-over alternative to a mean, scary court proceeding. Time after time, arbitration has been found to favor corporations over complainants. One report from 2007 found that consumers in California arbitration cases won just 4 percent of their cases. The companies typically choose the arbitrator and the location. Consumer advocates argue that arbitrators reach decisions that please the corporation, rather than decisions based on facts, in hopes of getting repeat business.
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