Things used to be a lot simpler in America: if a company did you wrong, you sued them. You resolved your situation, and, more importantly, the company cleaned up their act – because everyone else saw it on the news.
Unfortunately, that’s not really the case anymore. Today, virtually every contract you sign or agreement you click “OK” to contains an Arbitration Clause.
The Danger of Arbitration CLauses
“What’s an Arbitration Clause?”, you ask? Well, an Arbitration Clause is a little insurance policy from the companies like to reserve themselves. These clauses basically say that should you ever have a problem with the company, you waive your right to sue. Instead, you will have to go to private arbitration proceedings.
“Private arbitration doesn’t sound so bad, why is this a problem?” That’s what I thought originally, too. But the problem comes into how arbitration agreements operate, financially, compared to lawsuits and other proceedings in open court. First, you generally have to pay a large up-front sum, ranging from $250 to over $1,000 just to initiate arbitration proceedings – a small sum for a large corporation, but a large sum for the average American. Further, lawyers won’t take the cases, because they normally can’t be paid on contingency like they would with lawsuits.
Beyond that, unlike court cases, arbitration proceedings are almost always behind closed doors, with any resulting rulings generally subject to non-disclosure agreements which both sides sign. Therefore, if an unethical company abuses hundreds or even thousands of clients, you may never hear about it if all of the proceedings take place in arbitration.
The Legal System Is Not Changing Fast Enough
While their are some promising developments in the area of Mass Arbitration, unfortunately it’s just not yet a legal strategy that many American lawyers practice today, including those who purport to be consumer protection advocates. Therefore, many Americans are finding that in order achieve justice, they have to gain leverage over such companies on their own – without the aid of the U.S. legal system.
These new, digital vigilantes – distinct from the likes of Anonymous and other online groups in that they’re not groups at all, but generally act as individuals – are finding ways to upset the apple cart for unethical companies, gaining leverage over them in all new ways. Spanning in sophistication from haphazard trolling to organizing thousands of fellow victims to speak with the media, it’s when these folks find each other via the Internet, combine their skills, and launch joint campaigns that they really start to drive change.
How We Intend To Help Until Others Step-UP
Therefore, until Regulators and Lawmakers step-up to resolve this situation and legal professionals become more competent and proficient at fighting them, this site will continue to dedicate itself to documenting all of the effective means of Direct Consumer Action that evoke action on behalf of unethical companies, but also to bringing victims together via our Community.
If you would like to begin taking direct action against unethical companies today, visit our Actions page.