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.

First, Kia Franklin relayed the news that a recent Department of Health and Human Services study cited 94% of nursing homes for violations of federal health and safety laws. This underscores the need for legislation banning forced arbitration, which nursing homes use to immunize themselves from the accountability when they violate the law or hurt their residents through negligent treatment or abuse. (Follow up on the Times story from Tortdeform here. Read more about the nursing home arbitration bill here.)

Next, Justinian Lane recaps a study by two law professors about the reluctance of companies to use arbitration when dealing with one another. The professors cited in the story have been following this issue for some time now, and their results have consistently shown the hypocrisy of corporations that tout arbitration as a fair, efficient, less costly method of dispute resolution between companies and consumers, or employers and employees, but not between one another.