Public Citizen
Forced Arbitration Rogues Gallery
Expose Corporations That Are Rigging the Justice System Against Consumers
You can help us add more by blowing the whistle on the companies that are taking away your rights with this predatory practice. Read more at Public Citizen...

No Mandatory Binding Arbitration Allowed
OCT. 31, 2004: Fannie May & Freddie Mac no longer accept residential mortgage loans that contain mandatory arbitration clauses. Read more... Plus: Freddie Mac Press Release
   
Arbitration Justice  It stripped you of your rights and locks you into what many consider a one-sided decision that benefits everyone but you. The consumer has basically waived their constitutional right to sue, as an individual or with a class action suit, when he or she signs a mandatory binding arbitration clause as part of a contract. Consumer advocates point out many people do not know they have denied themselves that right.  

Mandatory Binding Arbitration Archives 1999 - 2002     
List of Home Builders that Require Mandatory Binding Arbitration as a condition to purchasing a New Home 
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Featured Reports
Public Citizen Report - Arbitration More Expensive Than Court � So Costly That Many Victims of Consumer Fraud, Employment Discrimination Give Up
Read the executive summary of the report, click here.

Public Citizen Report - CAS Arbitration Investigated
Public Citizens calls for investigation of HBW and CAS 
Public Citizen describes how CAS is co-owned by a former lawyer who was disbarred for stealing client funds and operates in apparent violation of 12 states� laws... The letters also request investigations of the Home Buyers Warranty (HBW) companies, which insure many homebuilders and have designated CAS as the sole legal forum available to tens of thousands of Americans who buy new homes each year.

Public Citizen Report - The Arbitration Trap 
How Credit Card Companies Ensmare consumers 
Stunning results that disfavor consumers: In the more than 19,000 cases in which an NAF-appointed arbitrator was involved, 94 percent of decisions were for business... Biased decision-makers: Arbitrators have a strong financial incentive to rule in favor of the companies that file cases against cunsumers because they can make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year conducting arbitrations...Top arbitrators can charge up to $10,000 per day and some make $1 million a year. In camparison, California Superior Court judges earn $171,648.

Click to Listen: 7/3/2008 Binding Arbitration "You Can't Sue Me" Clauses! 
Ira Rheingold Executive Director and General Counsel of the National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA.net) and Janet Ahmad, Predisent of HomeOwners for Better Building hobb.org (hobb.org) discuss the costly, unfair and harmful effects of binding mandatory arbitration.
SpotLight  

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Arbitration is the privatization of the Judicial System
The deck is stacked against homebuyers
The danger is that an arbitrator has the power of a Supreme Court Justice since arbitration decisions are final and can not be appealed.  For the past 12 years this consumer abusive system has been exploited by the homebuilding industry to avoid all warranty responsibility for defectively built homes.  Read more... or call 1-210-402-6800

American Arbitration Association (AAA) & The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Joint Venture 
Binding Arbitration Background: In 1994 the National Assoc. of Home Builder (NAHB) and the American Arbitration Association (AAA) entered into a joint venture to write arbitration rules and builders put arbitration clauses in their contracts.  For the past 12 years NAHB�s members continued to supply AAA with excessively expensive binding arbitration business while homebuilders consistently receive favorable binding arbitration decisions from AAA.  Recently the building industry�s attempted to bully the Houston Better Business Bureau from offering affordable or even a free dispute resolution process that might hold builders accountable.  The object of the industry is to make arbitration too expensive for the consumer.
Houston Chronicle: Homeowners losing one option to resolve issues

American Arbitration Association Adoption of Rules - April 1, 1996
NAHB distributed a recommended builder contract to all of its members that contained a binding arbitration clause which stated, all disputes arising out of the contract shall be submitted to "American Arbitration Association (AAA) and shall be governed by the provisions of the AAA Construction Industry Arbitration Rules.      

Home Buyers Warranty Corporation (HBW) Scam & Binding Arbitration
After HBW accepted homes for enrollment in the warranty program, HBW issued warranty booklets to the homeowners. The HBW warranty booklet provided, "Any and all claims, disputes and controversies by or between the Homeowner, the Builder, the Warranty Insurer and/or HBW, or any combination of the foregoing, arising from or related to this Warranty, to the subject Home, to any defect in or to the subject Home or the real property on which the subject Home is situated, or the sale of the subject Home by the Builder, including without limitation, any claim of breach of contract, negligent or intentional misrepresentation or nondisclosure in the inducement, execution or performance of any contract, including this arbitration agreement, and breach of any alleged duty of good faith and fair dealing, shall be submitted to arbitration.  Read more...

Binding Arbitration & Worthless Builder Home Warranty - New Jersey Superior Court Judge Finds New Jersey's Home Owner Warranty Program "A Useless Piece of Paper" - "I'm well aware of the RWC program, the homeowner warranty program, and the election of remedies. It is set up with the specific goal in mind that there is declining coverage for the benefit of the homeowner, it declines. This is a program, even though it is distinguished by the Legislature, as a homeowner warranty, it is basically a safety net for the builder, as opposed to the homeowner."