CONGRESSMAN HANK JOHNSON
Georgia's Fourth Congressional District
Rep. Johnson seeks to strengthen consumer, employee rights
February 12, 2009
WASHINGTON âRep. Hank Johnson (GA-04) introduced legislation today known as the Arbitration Fairness Act.
The bill aims to protect consumers from business practices that require them to cede their rights to a jury trial as a condition of service. The Judiciary Committee, on which Johnson serves, held hearings on the bill in 2007 and 2008. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) introduced similar legislation in the Senate in 2007.
Today, many businesses rely on mandatory and binding pre-dispute arbitration agreements that force consumers, employees and franchisees to settle any dispute with a company providing products or services without the benefit of a jury trial.
âThis is not an anti-business bill, but a pro-consumer bill,â said Johnson. âOne of our indelible rights is the right of a jury trial. Guaranteed by the Constitution, this right has been gradually ceded by citizens every day as they purchase a new cell phone, buy a home, place a loved one in a nursing home, or accept a new job. Once used as a tool for businesses to solve their disputes, arbitration agreements have found their way into employment, consumer, franchise and medical contracts.â
Johnson is optimistic about the bipartisan legislation because he garnered more than 35 original cosponsors, including Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. and former subcommittee chair of Commercial and Administrative Law Rep. Linda Sanchez.
More than 100 Representatives co-sponsored the house bill when Johnson first introduced it in the 110th Congress in 2007.
If passed, the act would not dismantle arbitration as a means to resolve conflicts between businesses and consumers, employers and employees but rather give consumers a choice of how to resolve a dispute with a company.
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