Graham Steele's blog
Graham Steele's blog
Small Claims Help Consumers Beat the Banks
If you ever wondered why corporations prefer arbitration, the following video makes one of the reasons pretty clear. In the video, a consumer runs up various unfair overdraft charges and then avails himself of the small claims system to challenge the exorbitant fees. He pays $47.50 in filing fees and spends less than an hour between the bank and the post office. The end result: the bank, Wells Fargo, calls him and settles the case by dropping his charges.
Watch for yourself:
Coalition Encouraged by Bank of America's Decision to Stop Using Forced Arbitration; Now Congress Must Act
The Fair Arbitration Now Coalition is encouraged by Bank of America’s decision to stop requiring its customers to resolve their disputes in the unfair system of forced arbitration.
House Subcommittee to Investigate Forced Arbitration in Consumer Debt Collection
By Lucy Colby
This Wednesday, the House Subcommittee on Domestic Policy, chaired by Congressman Dennis Kucinich, will hold a hearing on the misuse of arbitration in consumer debt collection. Experts invited to testify include Michael Kelly, COO of the National Arbitration Forum (NAF), Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson, and Richard W. Naimark, a Senior Vice President at the American Arbitration Association (AAA). We expect this hearing to further illustrate why we need legislation to end forced arbitration.
The hearing should be particularly interesting in light of the recent suit filed by Attorney General Swanson against NAF alleging false advertising, deceptive trade practices, and consumer fraud. (See this statement from David Arkush, Director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch Division, and this post from Deepak Gupta of Public Citizen’s Litigation Group.)
New Consumer Agency to Take Aim at Forced Arbitration
The Administration has released the details of its plan to create a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA). Opponents of forced arbitration should be encouraged that the Administration has specifically targeted the forced arbitration system as just the sort of predatory practice that the new agency should address.
Corporate Double-Speak on Union, Consumer Arbitrations
American Rights at Work recently launched a campaign to highlight big business's double-speak about arbitration. (h/t to AFL-CIO.) The campaign points out Corporate America's differing views on arbitration in two bills: the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) and the Arbitration Fairness Act (AFA).
House Committee Holds Credit Card Arbitration Hearing
On Tuesday the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law held a hearing entitled "Federal Arbitration Act: Is the Credit Card Industry Using It To Quash Legal Claims?" (Committee site here.) The witnesses included consumer attorney Mike Donovan, Public Citizen's David Arkush, and Professor Rich Frankel of Drexel Law School.
The House passed a credit card reform measure last week, and the Senate will be taking up their legislation soon. Our position on the issue can best be summed up by this excellent statement by Ed at US PIRG: "[O]wning a credit card company will still be a license to steal, and credit card companies will still be above the law, until we pass the Arbitration Fairness Act." The hearing was very well-attended, particularly on the Republican side, and the discussion was lively. More details after the jump.
Yet Another Harmful Industry Employing Forced Arbitration
Our "Issues" section documents the various ways that companies force arbitration on Americans. These include legitimate businesses as well as shadier industries like payday lending and loans for students at unaccredited, for-profit trade schools. A recent report by Consumer Federation of America has uncovered yet another shady industry using forced arbitration to immunize itself from accountability to its consumers: for-profit identity theft services.
More on these services and their abuse of forced arbitration after the jump...
The Other Bad News for Consumers: Forced Arbitration
Cross-posted from The Watchdog Blog
Due to the extensive coverage of the recent economic meltdown and the presidential race, it's been easy to miss some other news very relevant to consumers and corporate accountability. Over at Tortdeform, they have some excellent posts about issues covered by the New York Times.
Business Week Looks Inside Arbitration Firm, Finds Shady Practices
In case you missed it, Business Week published an excellent story last week that highlights the abuses of pre-dispute binding mandatory consumer arbitration. As you probably know by now, many consumer service contracts (credit cards, cell phones, cable/internet/telephone service, car purchase agreements, computer purchase agreements, etc., etc.) force individuals to resolve disputes in arbitration instead of court. Despite its innocuous sounding name, arbitration is a legally binding process.