The Arbitration Fairness Act of 2007

Ban Mandatory Binding Arbitration

Urge your Senators and Representative to support the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2007!

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I urge you to support the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2007, which would ban pre-dispute Mandatory Binding Arbitration clauses in consumer and employment contracts.  This unfair practice stacks the deck against average Americans trying to hold powerful interests accountable when they have been hurt through no fault of their own.

Buried within the fine print of many consumer contracts for credit cards, home-building contracts and car purchases are clauses that stack the deck against ordinary Americans and force consumers to give up their rights before a dispute even occurs.  This is called “pre-dispute Mandatory Binding Arbitration."

These are a few of the biggest problems with Mandatory Binding Arbitration:

Mandatory Binding Arbitration is Often Biased:
Because businesses are the only repeat customers of the arbitration companies, they are inclined to rule in favor of the businesses – but it is difficult to document this bias because no appeal of arbitrators’ rulings are allowed and confidentiality is often enforced.

Mandatory Binding Arbitration is Prohibitively Costly:  
When consumers try to hold businesses accountable through arbitration, they must pay costly filing fees– often more than $750 just to initiate a case.  Even worse, these fees do not cover the arbitrator’s hourly charges, generally in the range of $200 to $300 per hour.  The fees must be paid in advance, and often add up to tens of thousands of dollars.

Mandatory Binding Arbitration Can Force Travel to Inconvenient Locations:  
Arbitration clauses often require that hearings be held in locations inconvenient to injured consumers, requiring them to bear the cost of long-distance travel.  For example, the Internet auction site e-Bay requires customers to travel to its home turf in California to arbitrate any dispute.

Mandatory Binding Arbitration Allows Only Limited Remedies:   
Courts can provide a range of remedies not available to a claimant in arbitration.  For example, a court order can compel the offending party to change their practices, preventing future harm to consumers. As well, arbitration results are not open to public scrutiny.  As a result, arbitration awards to consumers and employees are substantially lower than court awards and do not result in changes to unfair and dangerous practices.

Mandatory Binding Arbitration Prohibits Class Actions: 
Nearly every arbitration clause prohibits participation in class action lawsuits, the only effective remedy for wide-scale scams that defraud individual consumers. Individuals do not have the time or resources to recognize, investigate, and prove the existence of such fraudulent practices.

Again, I urge you to support the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2007 which bans this unfair practice and allows hardworking Americans to seek justice through the courts, often the only place they can face powerful interests on a level playing field.

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