{"id":129805,"date":"2016-02-11T08:43:12","date_gmt":"2016-02-11T15:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/11\/arbitrary-arbitration.html"},"modified":"2016-02-11T08:43:12","modified_gmt":"2016-02-11T15:43:12","slug":"arbitrary-arbitration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/11\/arbitrary-arbitration.html","title":{"rendered":"Arbitrary Arbitration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senate Democrats have introduced a new bill (which, of course, will go nowhere, but still) to reduce the usage of forced arbitration clauses in contracts.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/vtdigger.org\/2016\/02\/05\/leahy-unveils-legislation-restore-rights-americans-forced-arbitration\/<\/a><\/p>\n

'“When Americans sign cell phone agreements, rent an apartment, or accept a contract for a job, most of us focus on the service we are about to receive or that we are about to provide. What Americans do not realize—until it is too late—is that too often we are also signing away crucial legal rights,” Leahy said. “Legal fine print tips the scales against us. It is forcing consumers into private arbitration, denying us of our Constitutional right to protect ourselves in court.”'<\/i><\/p>\n

The problem is less, I suspect, people not reading the fine print, but that this web of arbitration is, when noticed, seen as hypothetical risk against a very real inflexible need. <\/p>\n

So there's a binding arbitration clause in my employment contract; do I simply say no, no, and go and find another job? Are there that many jobs out there without such clauses? How do I find out before I apply?<\/p>\n

Oh, hey, and, yeah, I could say no to that apartment rental contract with the binding arbitration clause, but this place I just found is perfect, and there aren't many apartments on the market right now, so I'll just take that chance.<\/p>\n

And my cell phone is broken, and all the big carriers have these same clauses in their contracts. So I should simply give up carrying a mobile?<\/p>\n

Is arbitration always a bad thing? No, not at all, and when organized correctly and impartially, it has serious advantages over courtroom-based litigation. But the latter should always be available as an option, because company-imposed arbitration arrangements are rarely balanced and impartial. <\/p>\n

Hopefully this bill will get some<\/i> traction, though it being an election year, the Senate, and something introduced by the Democrats, I suspect it will never see the light of day beyond a press release.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
\n<\/a>\u00a0\n<\/div>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senate Democrats have introduced a new bill (which, of course, will go nowhere, but still) to reduce the usage of forced arbitration clauses in contracts. https:\/\/vtdigger.org\/2016\/02\/05\/leahy-unveils-legislation-restore-rights-americans-forced-arbitration\/ '“When Americans sign cell phone agreements, rent an apartment, or accept a contract for a job, most of us focus on the service we are about to receive or … Continue reading “Arbitrary Arbitration”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":129806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plusposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/magnifying-glass-looking-at-contract5B15D.jpgimgmax=660.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":134613,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/08\/businesses-seek-cripple-americans-disabilities-act.html","url_meta":{"origin":129805,"position":0},"title":"Businesses seek to cripple the Americans with Disabilities Act","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 8-Sep-17 7:35am","format":false,"excerpt":"The ADA has been in place 27 years. It was landmark legislation, protecting the rights of people with disabilities in a way that reshaped businesses and communities. \"Is this accessible?\" became a key question asked around all design efforts, to make sure that all people can get to the places\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/unnamed-5.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":135160,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/10\/24\/best-government-banking-money-can-buy.html","url_meta":{"origin":129805,"position":1},"title":"Best government banking money can buy","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 24-Oct-17 4:25pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Trump Treasury Dept. has come out publicly against a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rule that says a limited set of banks cannot use forced arbitration clauses to block class action suits against them. Because of course they did. The GOP members of the House have already passed a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Mnuchin-trust-me.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":49712,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/26\/the-trans-pacific-partnership.html","url_meta":{"origin":129805,"position":2},"title":"The Trans-Pacific Partnership","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 26-Feb-15 9:48pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm a moderately strong believer in international cooperation. But turning over national sovereignty (anyone's national sovereignty) in favor of transnational corporation-centric arbitration seems like very much the wrong way to do that.\"This isn\u2019t a partisan issue. Conservatives who believe in U.S. sovereignty should be outraged that ISDS would shift power\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49349,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/01\/23\/this-is-why-we-cant-have-nice-things-wikipedia-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":129805,"position":3},"title":"This is why we can't have nice things (Wikipedia Edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 23-Jan-15 9:43pm","format":false,"excerpt":"This particular contretemps demonstrates Wikipedia's greatest weakeness: addressing controversial contemporary issues, exacerbated by the level of vitriol and online savvy of the parties involved in this particular arena.As a general rule, Wikipedia is an awesome resource, and the vast majority of its information is provided in a way that no\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21148,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/06\/unblogged-bits-mon-6-jun-11-1730.html","url_meta":{"origin":129805,"position":4},"title":"Unblogged Bits (Mon. 6-Jun-11 1730)","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 6-Jun-11 5:30pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... GOP Brings the War on Unions to the Federal Government | People For the American Way Blog - \"Despite the fact that official time costs only $130 million per year -- significantly less expensive\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31439,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/20\/leahy-flip-flops-in-a-good-direction-on-privacy.html","url_meta":{"origin":129805,"position":5},"title":"Leahy flip-flops (in a good direction) on privacy","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 20-Nov-12 2:20pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, that's good news. \u00a0'Leahy's proposal would have allowed over 22 agencies -- including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission -- to access Americans' e-mail, Google Docs files, Facebook wall posts, and Twitter direct messages without a search warrant. It also would have given the FBI\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}