Public Citizen Continues their Assault on the State of ArbitrationToday, Public Citizen released another report, as part of their ongoing assault on the edifice of Arbitration. In this latest lambaste of the state-of-the-art, Public Citizen points out that 'arbitration is ubiquitous in many industries', and titled their report "Unfair and Everywhere". Unfair-And-Everywhere.pdfRead the report here.
As this author is wont to point out, arbitration is the outsourcing of societies' civil justice, your right to a judge and a jury. At least, this public policy/ societal outsourcing should maintain the intent and the foundation of law. The corporate usurpation of the process is the issue.
The Public Citizen is follow through on the Fall 2007 report from Public Citizen "Arbitration Trap" and is on the heels of this summer's capitulation of the National Arbitration Forum to Minnesota State Attorney General's lawsuit (READ THE LAWSUIT HERE). Of particular note is Public Citizens' tactics with the call centers of American Express, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, (see the report footnotes 29, 30, 33), all of which exploit those call centers' machinations to expose the business practices of these firms. In several noteworthy passages, Public Citizen catches employees of these corporations referring callers to 'the department that knows". As it turns out, the National Arbitration Forum is answering these inquiries, as the "customer service department that know about arbitration." (this was an American Express call center - see page 9 of the Public Citizen report "Unfair and Everywhere").
The Public Citizen report is an admirable data hash. The report give a good overview of arbitration usage in the banking and cell phone industry, as well as computer manufacturing. Homebuilders, brokerages, cable and internet providers, and automobile dealers' use of arbitration round out the 24 paqe report. This is a must read!
CALIFORNIA 1281.96 REPORTING ANALYSIS