Corporate kangaroo courts have quietly usurped our constitutional right to trial by judge and jury

[midnight]

All you really need to know about the present process is that it's the product of years of conceptual monkeywrenching by corporate lobbyists, Congress, the Supreme Court, and hired-gun arbitration firms looking to milk the system for steady profits. Good luck at getting even a crumb of justice from that cabal.

For the past three decades (and the last one in particular), they have steadily been perverting the arbitration alternative by corporatizing the process. First and foremost, these fixers eliminated choice from arbitration, turning a voluntary process into the exact opposite: Mandatory. Let's take a quick spin through it:

Unlike courts, arbitration is not a public system fully subject to such measures as conflict-of-interest laws, but a private business;
Far from being neutral, so-called "third-party" arbitrators are--get this!--usually chosen by the corporation involved in the case;
Major corporations are constantly in arbitration against consumers, workers, and others, and they generally handpick arbitrators from firms with proven records of favoring the corporation--worse, some of these "neutral" umpires are actually under contract with corporations that engage in multiple cases;
The corporation also gets to choose the city or town where the case is heard, allowing it to make the case inconvenient, expensive, and unfair for individuals bringing a complaint;
Arbitrators are not required to know the law relevant to the cases they judge, follow legal precedents, or even be lawyers (though most are);
Normal procedural rules for gathering and sharing evidence and safeguarding fairness to both parties do not apply in arbitration cases;
Arbitration hearings and the arbitrator's deliberations are closed to the media and the public;
Arbitrators need not reveal the reasons for their decisions --so they are not legally accountable for errors, and their decisions set no legal precedents for guiding future corporate conduct;
Even if an arbitrator's decision is legally incorrect, it still is enforceable, carrying the full weight of law; and
There is virtually no right to appeal an arbitrator's ruling.


http://www.hightowerlowdown.org/node/3264#.UTZWho6D5M0

I was wondering if anyone has any experience with this system?

[msongs]

1. yet another thing democrats should be against but are not nt

[Lint Head]

2. Arbitration was something else that the corporate fascists lobbied for years ago. I remember when it

was instituted at my workplace. People were not happy. We had to sign a yearly agreement to arbitrate any disagreements related to treatment on the job. It was pushed by the propaganda that it would save money in the courts and paying those so called dastardly lawyers. Lawyers have only ever helped me. The universities that spit out business graduates yearly just toe the line because they got that sheep skin to make money not waves.

[midnight]

4. I was wondering about this... I too remember hearing about it being so good too...

[Pakid]

3. It will only keep getting worse

until we as a people grow some balls and stand up to the rich and there lackeys in congress.

[OnyxCollie]

5. AT&T Mobility v Concepcion

http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/att-mobility-v-concepcion/

Holding: California state contract law, which deems class-action waivers in arbitration agreements unenforceable when certain criteria are met, is preempted by the Federal Arbitration Act because it stands as an obstacle to the accomplishment and execution of the full purposes and objectives of Congress.

Plain English Holding: Under the Federal Arbitration Act, California must enforce arbitration agreements even if the agreement requires that consumer complaints be arbitrated individually (instead of on a class-action basis).

[OnyxCollie]

6. Touchy mouse button took away my recommend.

So kick instead.

[OnyxCollie]

7. And kick again. nt

[OnyxCollie]

8. The recommend button came back.

Kick again.

[OnyxCollie]

9. I think this is very important in light of Michigan's Emergency Financial Manager.

If a corporation could be put in place to handle the services of the city, it could screw over everybody and not being concerned with a collective action to rise against it.

If I was a bank, I'd be wantin' to get in on some of that action.

Bolivian Activist Oscar Olivera on Bechtel’s Privatization of Rainwater and Why Evo Morales Should Remember the Ongoing Struggle Over Water
http://www.democracynow.org/2006/10/5/bolivian_activist_oscar_olivera_on_bechtels

MY GOODMAN: But could you explain, though it’s well-known in Bolivia, hardly known here at all, though it’s a U.S. company, what happened in Cochabamba? Talk about what Bechtel tried to do and what the people responded.

OSCAR OLIVERA: It’s not that Bechtel tried to do it. They did it. They increased the charges for water, the cost of water, by 300%, so that every family had to pay, for this water service, one-fifth of their income.

AMY GOODMAN: How did they get control of the water? I mean, here, you turn on the tap. You don’t pay.

OSCAR OLIVERA: The government, under a law that was passed, conceded control of the water under a monopoly to Bechtel in a certain area. So that means that Bechtel tried to charge a fee and had the monopoly power over a very basic necessity for people. The law said even that people had to ask, had to obtain a permit to collect rainwater. That means that even rainwater was privatized. The most serious thing was that indigenous communities and farming communities, who for years had their own water rights, those water sources were converted into property that could be bought and sold by international corporations.

In confronting that situation, the people rose up, confronted Bechtel, and during five months of mobilization, managed to defeat Bechtel, breach the contract and change the law. But the most important thing — and we need to remind Evo Morales of that today — was that that victory of the people in Cochabamba was the reason why Evo Morales could be president today. If that uprising in 2000 had not ended in a popular victory, Evo Morales today would not be the president.

Hat tip to Catherina.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022465816#post6

[midnight]

11. This is an example of real concern.... I'm not able to absorb this whole article you posted, but wil

come back....But wanted to thank you for your info...

[yurbud]

10. I worked for a Beverly Hills attorney service 20 years ago, and we did a lot of business with these

I can imagine it's only gotten bigger.

Also, underfunding courts so their dockets are always overflowing makes these look more tempting to people who just want to get things over with, but they don't realize it will screw them.