A Step Toward Fairness in Minnesota

"The actions of this company undermine justice and are a threat to the legal system."

That’s Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson, quoted in a BusinessWeek article, referring to the National Arbitration Forum (NAF), which her office sued this week for consumer fraud, deceptive trade practices and false advertising. The lawsuit also claims that NAF is secretly allied with the credit card industry.

"Minnesota’s lawsuit is an important effort to protect its citizens from the inherent corruption of the forced arbitration system. Congress must now protect all Americans by passing legislation to end forced arbitration," as David Arkush, Director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch Division, said in a press release. He notes that the Arbitration Fairness Act (H.R. 1020 and S. 931) would protect consumers, employees and franchisees.

One of the allegations in the complaint is that NAF has tried to discredit Public Citizen’s 2007 report showing that big corporations win 95% of the disputes NAF hears.