Why Mandatory Arbitration is Bad

I hear people talk about the cost of litigation, sometimes how taking a case to court takes time and other complaints about court cases. However, you don’t have to read beyond this article to quickly understand why I don’t like mandatory arbitration. (You really should read the article.) Our Constitution gives us the right to a trial by jury. However, the legislatures and courts have said that your right to trial by jury can be signed away in the fine print in the contract when you buy a car, in your employer’s handbook and when your buy other products. Don’t get me wrong, if after there is a dispute the parties agree to arbitration, that is their free choice. The problem is when they make you agree before there is a dispute, there is a good chance the dice are loaded.

We have rules of procedure in courts that govern how you can get discovery. In arbitration, you to have it approved before you can get it in many cases. I once had a case where the arbitrator would not let me get access to certain information. They later wrote we had failed to prove our case because, you guessed it, we didn’t put on evidence about a certain point – the evidence they would not let me have access to. There literally is no good basis to appeal an arbitration decision, it’s binding – read the end of the case. So, if a mistake is made against you, you are stuck.

By the way, who shows up in arbitration the most, you or the company that forced you into arbitration? Could the arbitrators be subconsciously influence by that? Public Citizen found that consumers lost 94 percent of the time. Of course, those pro arbitration say those statistics are not correct. Also, you have to pay for the cost of arbitration regardless of whether you win or lose. In some arbitration clauses, they provide that they will pay most of the bill. Do you want to pay to have your case heard? Do you want your case heard by an arbitrator when the other side is paying most of the arbitrator’s bill?

These are just a few of the reasons why I believe mandatory arbitration is bad. I believe in the Constitution and trial by jury.

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