Reuters
Pentagon contractor hit by ex-worker's rape charges
By Anna Driver
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Major Pentagon contractor KBR Inc and former parent Halliburton Co are facing rising political heat from a lawsuit filed by a woman who says she was gang-raped by fellow employees of a KBR unit in Iraq.
The complaint by Jamie Leigh Jones accuses the companies of tolerating abusive behavior and sexual harassment, creating a dangerous place to work for women in Iraq.
KBR, the Pentagon's largest private contractor in Iraq, has already drawn scrutiny from auditors, lawmakers and the U.S. Justice Department for its billing claims related to services provided to troops in that country.
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ABC News
DOJ Shuns Hearing on Halliburton/KBR Rape Cases
Former Halliburton/KBR Employee Recounts for Congress How She Was Gang-Raped in Iraq
By MADDY SAUER
The Department of Justice refused to send a representative to answer questions from Congress today on the investigations into allegations of rape and sexual assault on female American contractors.
"I'm embarrassed that the Department of Justice can't even come forward," said the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee John Conyers, D-Mich.
"This is an absolute disgrace," said Conyers. "The least we could do is have people from the Department of Justice and the Defense over here talking about how we're going to straighten out the system right away."
Among the witnesses who testified today was Jamie Leigh Jones, who appeared on "20/20" last week.
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Bloomberg
Business Fights for the Tilted Arbitration Field: Susan Antilla
By Susan Antilla
At a hearing in Washington yesterday, consumer advocate Richard M. Alderman sat before a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary committee and quoted from a grade school textbook: The legislative branch makes the laws, the executive branch carries them out, and the judicial branch explains what they mean.
It's a great concept. Too bad that isn't the way the system works for an increasing number of employees, consumers and people who invest in the stock market.
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Coverage of Jamie Leigh Jones Testimoney To Congress
December 19, 2007
http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSN1959998620071219
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/12/19/poe-testify-kbr/
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4027734&page=1
http://www.click2houston.com/news/14889964/detail.html
http://www.tortdeform.com/archives/2007/12/employer_government_justice_sy.html
http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2007/12/6632_kbr_rape_victim.html
ABC News, 20/20
Victim: Gang-Rape Cover-Up by U.S., Halliburton/KBR
BRIAN ROSS, MADDY SAUER & JUSTIN ROOD
A Houston, Texas woman says she was gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR coworkers in Baghdad, and the company and the U.S. government are covering up the incident.
Jamie Leigh Jones, now 22, says that after she was raped by multiple men at a KBR camp in the Green Zone, the company put her under guard in a shipping container with a bed and warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she'd be out of a job.
Dec. 10, 2007 "Don't plan on working back in Iraq. There won't be a position here, and there won't be a position in Houston," Jones says she was told.
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National Law Journal
Calif. High court rejects employer bans on wage arbitration
PAMELA A. MacLEAN
August 31, 2007
THE California Supreme Court extended its recognition of consumers' right to arbitrate class action claims to include employee class action arbitration.
In a split, 4-3 decision Aug. 30, the state's high court held employer-imposed bans on use of class action to arbitrate wage and overtime disputes cannot be enforced.
The ruling reinstates a claim by a Circuit City Stores, Inc. employee in southern California who alleged he was illegally misclassified as a manager "exempt" from overtime pay, when in fact he and others were non-exempt workers entitled to overtime, Gentry v. Sup. Ct. of Los Angeles County, S141502.
The case centered on the legality of class arbitration waivers in employment arbitration agreements.
"We conclude that at least in some cases, the prohibition of class-wide relief would undermine the vindication of the employees' unwaivable statutory rights and would pose a serious obstacle to the enforcement of the state's overtime laws," wrote Justice Carlos Moreno.
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New York Times
When Arbitrators Are Their Own Judges
BY GRETCHEN MORGENSON
WHEN Harley C. McDonald, a retired lawyer for a Nebraska construction company, lost 80 percent of his $60 million stock market nest egg, he lost faith in the brokerage industry.
And now, after having filed a complaint contending that his broker had neglected his investments, he’s losing faith in the arbitration system that is supposed to address grievances.
Whether Mr. McDonald’s broker is at fault is undetermined; an arbitration panel will decide that. But what is certain — at least in the eyes of Mr. McDonald, his wife, his lawyer and investor advocates — is that the arbitration process is flawed.
“There’s no justice here,” said Mr. McDonald’s wife, Carol. “You don’t have any way to get due process.”
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The State - South Carolina
Read Clauses Closely in Consumer Contracts
BY McCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS
Get a credit card, buy a car, or sign up for a cellphone plan, and chances are, if you're unhappy with your transaction, you won't be telling your story to a judge.
Many consumer contracts include mandatory arbitration clauses that force individuals to go through arbitration, instead of civil court, if a dispute arises. Some of these clauses also ban customers from joining class-action lawsuits.
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The Capital Times
FIENGOLD DEFENDS CONSUMER RIGHTS
Americans are under constant assault by corporations that seek to get consumers to sign away their rights. The worst abuse involves mandatory arbitration agreements, which require purchasers of products or services to give up their right to sue when problems develop.
Corporations love mandatory arbitration agreements because they allow the firms to manage employment, consumer, franchise or civil rights disputes in a manner that is generally favorable to their interests. By getting consumers, employees and others who do business with them to sign these agreements before troubles arise - at a point when the corporation usually has all the negotiating advantages - it becomes possible to deny Americans their day in court. And, in so doing, the likelihood that irresponsible, negligent or lawless corporations will ever be held to account is reduced.
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Miami Herald
Congress eyes mandatory arbitration clauses in contracts
Consumers could get more legal choices if Congress acts on legislation to void predispute mandatory arbitration agreements in car, credit card and other contracts.
BY ANGELA TABLAC
Get a credit card, buy a car, or sign up for a cellphone plan, and chances are, if you're unhappy with your transaction, you won't be telling your story to a judge.
Many consumer contracts include mandatory arbitration clauses that force individuals to go through arbitration, instead of civil court, if a dispute arises. Some of these clauses also ban customers from joining class-action lawsuits.
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FOX 26 Houston
Should You Opt Out of Comcast Arbitration Policy?
BY NED HIBBERD
The Comcast cable television company is changing the rules for some of its subscribers, including those in the Houston area. But, it is giving customers a narrow window to reject those changes.
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Montgomery County News Release
County Advises Comcast Customers to Opt Out of "Arbitration Notice" to Protect Rights
Montgomery County officials are warning Comcast cable subscribers who want to preserve their consumer rights to pay close attention to their July bills and take the appropriate steps to “opt out” of the Arbitration Notice that is included in the bills.
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Baltimore Sun
Changes proposed in consumer arbitration
Advocates, Congress call mandatory contracts unfair
Get a credit card, buy a car, or sign up for a cell phone plan, and chances are, if you're unhappy with your transaction, you won't be telling your story to a judge.
Many consumer contracts include mandatory arbitration clauses that force individuals to go through arbitration, instead of civil court, if a dispute arises. Some of these clauses also ban customers from joining class action lawsuits.
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Wall Street Journal
Two decades after mandatory arbitration took effect for investors' disputes, debate over it gains renewed momentum
BY JAIME LEVY PESSIN
The debate hasn't lost heat in two decades.
Twenty years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that securities brokerage firms could require their customers to take disputes to arbitration.
Now, the critics of that ruling are at it again: Following a stream of statements and letters from legislators, lawyers and consumer groups urging the Securities and Exchange Commission and Congress to ban mandatory arbitration, Sen. Russell Feingold (D., Wis.) and Rep. Hank Johnson (D., Ga.) introduced legislation in mid-July that would make pre-dispute mandatory-arbitration agreements unenforceable.
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San Francisco Chronicle
PRIVATE JUSTICE
Millions are losing their legal rights
Supreme Court forces disputes from court to arbitration - a system with no lawsReynolds Holding
BY REYNOLDS HOLDING
A private brand of civil justice, one without laws or juries or constitutional rights, has swept quietly across the nation's commercial landscape, shielding corporations from costly verdicts, compromising judges and stripping the public of its right to a day in court.
Tens of millions of Americans can no longer get medical treatment, a job, a home, a credit card or a host of goods and services without agreeing to resolve future disputes in confidential, unregulated proceedings riddled with conflicts of interest.
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