Celebrate Arbitration Fairness Day On April 29, 2009
Forced arbitration is another example of how corporations are taking advantage of Americans. As a private system without an impartial judge or a jury, mandatory arbitration allows companies like AIG to play by their own rules and escape accountability when they harm consumers and employees.

Arbitration Fairness Day - Participate, Contact Congress
Arbitration Fairness Day takes place on April 29th.  Sign up Now! It's time to end forced arbitration. Companies must stop taking advantage of Americans and must be held accountable. Forced arbitration allows companies to play by their own rules and escape accountability when they harm consumers and employees. Participate: Sign petition, write you Representatives, tell your arbitration story, sign petition and invite your friends to join.

House Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence
Surprising reaction from  Chairman Todd Hunter and Representative David Leibowitz toward those who spoke in opposition to the bill actually had difficulty trying to explain how “Federal law can override a (Texas) State Constitution.”   Chairman Hunter,  began taking serious exception with the Federal Arbitration Act and Preemption issues, and made it clear he wants a Texas Bill to limit binding arbitration clauses.  Clearly the proponents of arbitration made a case for the need to regulate abusive Mandatory Binding Arbitration clauses and to “get Washington out of Texans lives.” ...Representative Dan Gattis made a magnificent summation regarding his belief in the Civil Justus System and his concern for the secrecy of Binding Arbitration.Arbitration Bill HB 2696 - 04/15/09 1:33 p.m. - 9:01 p.m.  Advance video to 5:43 to begin HB2696 testimony Click to View Hearing...

American Arbitration Association Data Revealed
The report (using AAA data) showed that consumers win some award about 50 percent of the time and receive about 50 percent of what they ask for; businesses win 80 percent of the time and get more than 90 percent of what they ask for.  Statistics based on consumer to business cases. Home construction defect cases were not analyzed separately.  Read more... http://www.searlearbitration.org/p/full_report.pdf

LETTER: Law will help elders, families
Wisconsinites owe a debt of gratitude to Sen. Herb Kohl for introducing groundbreaking legislation that will now protect our elders. The bipartisan Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act of 2009 will prevent nursing homes from deliberately hiding clauses within the fine print of contracts to force seniors and their families to surrender their right to trial by jury and enter into an unfair and one-sided mandatory binding arbitration process.

Franchise Fraud: Wake Up and Smell the Fine Print
By 2004, Welshans had invested $90,000 from his nest egg, plus a Small Business Administration loan of nearly $300,000, to lease and renovate a promising space in an Annapolis office park. But the couple soon began to sense they'd made a huge mistake. On opening day, Welshans had to secure an additional $40,000 home equity loan to keep the business afloat... (Arbitrator) ordered the couple to pay $187,452 in legal fees and arbitration expenses—not including their own legal tab or the cost of travel to and from Michigan. Among the charges: $16,800 for Barron's services, $35,571 for a court reporter and transcription, even $504 for the Beanery lawyers' lunches. For Coffee Beanery, the victory served as the proverbial head on a stake: Its lawyers sent a copy of the award to Garner, the aggrieved Chicago franchisee, who abandoned his own arbitration claim soon after. (Congress is considering a ban on arbitration clauses in franchise contracts, but the franchisors are fighting back. The International Franchise Association, of which Coffee Beanery is a member, has spent more than $2 million lobbying in DC since 2005.)

Rep. Johnson seeks to strengthen consumer, employee rights
Rep. 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.  Read more...

Screwed by the Fine Print
Arbitration does not grant the three main safeguards guaranteed by our public courts: fairness, accountability and neutrality. The corporation chooses a private individual--who is not necessarily a judge or lawyer--to hear and decide the case. Corporations are repeat customers whose appeasement generates steady business. Studies show that arbitrators have financial reason to rule in their favor. Corporate clients get preferential treatment; regular people do not get anything resembling neutral decision-making.

County loses arbitration case, must pay $52.6 million to contractor
An arbitrator ruled Wednesday that Clark County must pay $52.6 million to a contractor it had publicly criticized for construction flaws that caused the Regional Justice Center to open four years late and millions of dollars over budget. ...a host of defects, including sloping floors, leaky windows, faulty steel-column footings and tic-tac-toe games scratched into doors... The county issued 120 noncompliance certificates and refused to pay the contractor until the glitches were fixed. It also penalized the company $12,000 a day for 10 months...Now the $52.6 million settlement cost could be added to the price tag.