No Lawyers, Please

Dan Frith

Contributor

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This is the title of an editorial published by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Saturday, April 5.  The editorial references a poll conducted by Presidential candidate, Barack Obama's pollster on behalf of the U. S. Chamber of Commerce and guess what the polls shows?  That 82% of the public would like to settle any dispute they have with a company without going to court.  Surprising?  Not hardly. 

Most people would prefer settling their claims (via arbitration) against the manufacturer of that defective device or their doctor or hospital or nursing home...but only if their claims are settled in a fair and reasonable way by an objective and fair process.  But the editorial fails to address that side of the issue and the WSJ editors simply conclude that mandatory arbitration is the best way to resolve all of these types of claims.  

The WSJ fails to comment on the fairness of mandatory arbitration agreements which allow the company to pick the arbitrator...or those mandatory arbitration agreements which prevent the "little guy" or consumer from conducting some discovery of the corporate defendant in order to prove their claim...or how about the arbitration agreement which "caps" damages well below the actual damages suffered by the consumer.

My take:  Pre-dispute mandatory arbitration clauses is just another way corporate America is sticking it to the little guy!