You may have unknowingly waived your constitutional right to a trial by jury when you purchased you new home, used your credit card or made a long-distance phone call. Today, mandatory arbitration agreements are found in almost all consumer contracts, and they are successfully being used by big corporations to block access to courts by consumers who have been treated unfairly. Go to www.texaswatch.org to learn more about arbitration and its pitfalls for consumers.

You may have unknowingly waived your constitutional right to a trial by jury when you purchased you new home, used your credit card or made a long-distance phone call. Today, mandatory arbitration agreements are found in almost all consumer contracts, and they are successfully being used by big corporations to block access to courts by consumers who have been treated unfairly. Go to www.texaswatch.org to learn more about arbitration and its pitfalls for consumers.

Critics say new rule favors contractors; builders contend it will make complaint process more efficient 
A new law, signed by Gov. John Engler on July 31, makes it mandatory for consumers to go to arbitration if the builder seeks negotiations and provides a third party to conduct them. Previously, the Michigan Department of Consumer and Industry Services handled all consumer complaints by holding formal hearings.

Washington Post: No Suits Allowed - Increasingly, Arbitration Is the Only Recourse
Five weeks after Dawn and Scott Richardson and their family moved into their new $300,000 house in Austin, they moved out. Dawn Richardson says the house had become so contaminated with toxic mold and volatile chemicals -- benzene and formaldehyde and more -- that she and her then-16-month-old daughter suffered bloody noses, rashes, dizziness, shortness of breath and neurological disorders... Richardson is convinced she won't get a fair hearing. "We have not found a single example of a single homeowner who's ever won against a builder in binding arbitration," she said. "Why would an AAA [American Arbitration Association] arbitrator find in favor of the consumer when AAA is Weekley's exclusive arbitration firm? If the arbitrator finds against Weekley Homes, AAA will no longer be on the contract, and the arbitrator may be blackballed from future work."

Mandatory Arbitration Hits Home
Texas and federal courts provide little protection to consumers trapped in arbitration agreements. The recent housing surge in the Lone Star State gave rise to a number of disputes between homeowners and homebuilders. Many homeowners learned, to their chagrin, that during the excitement of signing the contracts for their dream homes, they may have inadvertently signed away the constitutional right to have juries settle complaints against the homebuilders...In April 2002, Texas Lawyer reported an ongoing case of Dawn Richardson, an Austin homeowner, who filed a suit against David Weekley Homes after she learned that her family's new home allegedly was contaminated with dangerous levels of toxic mold and volatile organic compounds such as benzene, benzaldehyde, decane, heptane,formaldehyde, methylbenzene, octane, styrene and xylene.

Texas House panel hears complaints about binding arbitration requirement
Home buyers with horrifying tales of creeping mold, collapsing walls and heaving foundations converged on a Texas House subcommittee Wednesday to complain about how they unwittingly signed sales contracts preventing them from suing the builders they claim are responsible for their woes. "We're stuck with a house on our land that we don't want," Dawn Richardson of Austin told the House Subcommittee on Binding Arbitration. "We did not know that signing a construction contract . . . meant that we forever gave up our constitutional right to a trial by jury for any and all future disputes with our builder."

Moldy 'Lemon' Homes Denied Day In Court
A Texas House panel today will explore if consumers are being hurt by businesses? increasing reliance on ?binding arbitration.? Consumers will decry the privatized ?justice? system that binding arbitration has created, while business interests that give millions of dollars to Texas politicians will rush to the defense of this plaintiff-hostile system.

Private arbitration criticized Report says court often cheaper; supporters say study is misleading
Private arbitration is not as cost effective and time efficient as its proponents have stated, according to a new report conducted by Public Citizen, a consumer organization.The study will be introduced this week to a Texas legislative panel starting a review of the role of arbitration in resolving legal and contractual disputes, according to officials at Public Citizen, which is based in Washington, D.C.The report found that for most low-income individuals, going to court remains cheaper and faster than private arbitration. It also found that many companies use the high cost of filing and pursuing arbitration to keep people from filing claims against them.

Builder Attempts to Compel All Claims to Arbitration
Travis Count Court conducted a hearing to rule on David Weekley Homes' motion to compel arbitration for all claims against them from Richardson. The Richardson's attorney, Mark Smith of Williams Bailey Law Firm responded that the costs to the Richardsons would be unreasonably excessive - well over $24,000 - while court costs in Travis County were only $150. The judge agreed that these excessive fees for arbitration would effectively deny the Richardsons a forum to seek justice.

Beware:Toxic Mold
Sharyn Iler, 52, of the Woodlands, Texas, an upscale suburb of Houston, couldn't figure out what was wrong. Every time she went into her bathroom to put on makeup, her eyes started burning. She felt constantly exhausted, her vision was blurry and she had a dry cough that just wouldn't quit. Diagnosed with breast cancer in 1998, Iler feared the worst. Perhaps after two years of remission, the disease had returned. She never imagined that the source of her troubles might lie buried within the walls of her $300,000 home...

VA looks into Pulte Homes after complaint
The VA has also requested copies of other construction complaints received from homeowners in all Pulte subdivisions in the Houston area in which the foundation design has been used since 1999, according to HomeOwners for Better Building.  HomeOwners is encouraging all Pulte homeowners with HUD/FHA and VA loans in the Houston area and throughout Texas with signs of foundation problems to send a certified letter to Pulte Homes and file a complaint with either the FHA or VA.

Test results prove dangerous mold in Bexar County Courthouse 
According to one county judge, it's mold that nearly cost her life. "When I first started getting sick, they were remodeling this courtroom," said County Court at Law No. 3 Judge Shay Gebhardt.