Midday Business Report: Service members gain more loan protections
The law, resulting from legislation co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Jim Talent, a Missouri Republican, has gained widespread applause from service and consumer groups... Consumer lawyers say the anti-predatory law also contains a new prohibition against binding mandatory arbitration clauses and any other waivers of the right to seek legal recourse... “I think the prohibition on arbitration is huge,” said Dale Irwin, a Kansas City consumer lawyer. “Congress has finally acknowledged the unfairness of these kinds of clauses in the consumer context.” He said the law gives strength to broader efforts by consumer groups to outlaw arbitration clauses all together.

Privatizing Justice
Meanwhile, the Richardsons and Janet Ahmad, the San Antonio founder of Homeowners for Better Builders, are desperately seeking a single case of a Texas homeowner who has emerged victorious from arbitration. This quest has stumbled over two of the most controversial aspects of AAA: its coziness with the business defendants that supply it with consumer disputes, and its obsessive secrecy, which shields it from the transparency and accountability found in public courts.

The People's Lawyer
Professor Richard M. Alderman
For more than 20 years, Richard Alderman has devoted his career to educating the public about the law — on the basis that not knowing your legal rights is the same as not having any. Read more...

Virgin Islands Daily News
Bill revisits past battles over worker arbitation
Labor advocates say those agreements give too much power to the employers and should not be a condition of employment.  Serious personal injury cases need the time, processes and protections guarenteed by the court process, they agrue, and employees desperate for a job should not be forced to sign away those protections.  Read More...

Texas Court Finalizes KB Home Arbitration Class Action Lawsuit
Laredo District Court Judge Solomon Casseb Tuesday approved a court supervised class action settlement of Timothy D. Pruitt vs. KB Home, which prohibits KB Home from requiring past, present or future customers to consent to mandatory binding arbitration for the settlement of warranty claims...Last month HomeOwners for Better Building obtained documents which appear to confirm that KB Home has again disregarded the FTC consent order and the terms of the of the new class action settlement.  While under the court provisional certification of the class action, the company referred at least one homeowner with major foundation problems to its third party warranty provider Home of Texas, who denied the claim and notified the homeowner to submit to Binding Arbitration, conducted by Construction Arbitration Services (CAS). See copy of documents – KB’s warranty provider request for binding arbitration, March 30, 2006: KB Defies FTC 
PRWEB Webhttp://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/5/prweb386981.htm

KB Home Settles Class Action Binding Arbitration Case
The settlement Wednesday of a class-action lawsuit against KB Home over a binding arbitration clause in homebuyer’s warranties will affect thousands of Texas homeowners...With the settlement of this class-action suit it effectively declares that KB Home and its subsidiaries binding arbitration clauses are invalid, and that homeowners can now sue KB Home in a court of law rather than being forced into binding arbitration over construction defects.