Surprise! Turns Out, Mandatory Arbitration is Fair—Not!

Well, that didn’t take long.  Just in time for Congress’s recent introduction of the Arbitration Fairness Act,  which is designed to protect consumers from having ridiculously one-sided arbitration agreements shoved down their throats, the Wall Street Journal’s law blog is encouraging us to “rejoice” because a new “study” shows that the dreaded process is actually “fair.” 

Then again, as Paul Bland, a staff attorney at Public Justice pointed out, the study has a few flaws—like say, limiting its examination to the practices of just one arbitrator. “I think it’s misleading to characterize consumer arbitrations generally by looking at a single [arbitration] provider,” he said. “I see companies shopping for the arbitration firms that will rule for them the most often.” (Let alone that every other analysis of arbitration says the opposite of that new "study".)

Also, as our friend Kia over at Tort Deform noted, the contact person on the press release announcing the study’s findings (Curt Mercadante) used to work at guess where…that’s right civil justice fans, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform!  As Gomer Pyle would say, “Surprise, surprise, surprise!”  Or to paraphrase Robert Duvall’s character in Apocalypse Now, I love the smell of propaganda in the morning!

Comments

[Consumer]

I read part of the study so far and felt their statistics were pretty shoddy. In the key findings document, they state that businesses won over 80% of the time which in itself is not supportive of their claim that arbitration is fair for consumers. Furthermore, they then said consumers won over 50% of the time, and last I looked, that adds up to well over 100%, a math error that would not fly in first grade math class. Then, they brag up the initial cost of arbitration as being cheap, but neglect the additional costs that come after that which can be very high. The whole thing reeks, and I mean REEKS, of shoddy work, inaccuracies, and twisted reasoning. What was their problem? Couldn't afford the super-deluxe version so they opted for the bargain basement study?

[NLS]

Spin, Spin, Spin, that's all we get from the Chamber of Commerce and their members. They never stop attempting to brainwash the public that "tort reform" is necessary, and "greedy trial attorney's" drive up the cost of everything. The truth is that lack of regulation, real penalties, and the ability of consumers to hold their members accountable, we now have a global financial disaster.