Consumer Law

Arbitration reform cannot come soon enough

By Nick Slade

In case you missed it, NPR has a really great story on why we need arbitration reform.

The piece starts out with the story of Jamie Leigh Jones a 20-year-old Halliburton/KBR employee in 2005, who was in Iraq for only four days before she was brutally gang raped by fellow employees. No criminal action was ever taken against the rapist who continued to work for Haliburton, so she is trying to sue in civil court. Haliburton/KBR are arguing that she cannot sue; instead, she must arbitrate.

The article also hit many of the points that Sam, I, and others have raised over and over about the biases against consumers in the arbitration system. While I think arbitration may have it place in busines-to-business transactions, where there is some equality in negotiating power, it has no place in consumer transactions.

Full post as published by Caveat Emptor on June 17, 2009 (boomark / email).