You’ll always be the loser
When it comes to mandatory arbitration in a dispute between you the public and a large corporation, you will nearly always, unless you are one of the lucky ones chosen at random to prove that sometimes J.Q Public wins, lose.
What if a judge solicited cases from big corporations by offering them a business-friendly venue in which to pursue consumers who are behind on their bills? What if the judge tried to make this pitch more appealing by teaming up with the corporations’ outside lawyers? And what if the same corporations helped pay the judge’s salary?
It would, of course, amount to a conflict of interest and cast doubt on the fairness of proceedings before the judge.
Yet that’s essentially how one of the country’s largest private arbitration firms operates. The National Arbitration Forum (NAF), a for-profit company based in Minneapolis, specializes in resolving claims by banks, credit-card companies, and major retailers that contend consumers owe them money. Often without knowing it, individuals agree in the fine print of their credit-card applications to arbitrate any disputes over bills rather than have the cases go to court. What consumers also don’t know is that NAF, which dominates credit-card arbitration, operates a system in which it is exceedingly difficult for individuals to prevail.
kudos to Business Week for publishing this. I know it’s entirely a dream but i hope an Obama presidency will do something about consumer rights, and being to reign in the power of corporations. Certainly refusing PAC money is a start but legislation is definitely required to bring back any sense of justice in the system..
Technorati Tags: conflict of interes, arbitration, National Arbitration Forum, NAF, credit-card arbitration, Business Week, you are so screwed, usury, unbridled greed
