Wrongful Credit Damage, Identity Theft and Debt Collection Abuse Blog

Hello,

For some time, my clients have known that my firm consistently opposes efforts by big corporations, car dealers, credit card companies and the like to deprive consumers of their rights to have their disputes decided in a court of law with “binding arbitration agreements” often hidden in consumer finance and purchase contracts. You rarely see the binding arbitration agreement in anything you sign; in fact, sometimes big corporations trick consumers into “signing” binding arbitration agreements by putting them into fine-print bill-stuffers so they’re not read. These “agreements” provide that you have agreed to binding arbitration and a waiver of any class action remedies if you even use your credit card after having received the bill-stuffer for a single charge. Fair? Hardly.

Big corporations have for years argued that binding arbitration is really fair, and that’s why big corporations are really doing everyone a favor by depriving them of their right to choose to go to court. Mind you, my firm is not opposed to choice: if a consumer wants to go to binding arbitration with a single arbitrator or retired judge, and wants to go there voluntarily, we’re happy to go that route, but we always insist that the client should have the choice.

Binding arbitration agreements deprive consumers of the choice to go to court. That’s precisely what they’re designed to do, and that’s why big corporations, car dealers, etc. hide them in small print in the midst of the multi-page consumer contracts that they force people to sign.

Some of my clients, however, have posed the question to me: what is unfair about binding arbitration? The arbitrator is supposed to be fair, right? Well, the answer is no. Corporations usually use captive arbitration providers, such as JAMS, NAF (National Arbitration Forum) or AAA (American Arbitration Association), where the corporation, NOT the consumer, is the repeat customer. The judges know that their paychecks and their repeat business comes from the corporations, not from the consumers, so these forums are hardly impartial.

If you have any remaining doubts about whether these forums are impartial, consider one of their biggest proponents: Dick Cheney. Our venerable Vice President has done pretty much everything within his power, and quite a few things very much outside of his power, to make a mockery of our system of justice. His recent refusal to comply with legal and congressional subpoenas is but a “tip of the Cheney iceberg,” towards which our ship of state is sadly headed.

Cheney’s distaste for pesky little things like constitutional guarantees, the Bill of Rights and due process of law date back to his Halliburton days, if not before. In the 1990’s, when Cheney was CEO of Halliburton, he tricked all of the employees of Halliburton and its subsidiaries into “signing” binding arbitration agreements simply by showing up to work. In other words, the company sent out a fine-print notice indicating that by the simple act of showing up to work, you had consented to waive your right to trial by jury and consented to having any disputes against Halliburton decided by in a binding arbitration. Halliburton has a long history of terminating workers who have filed worker’s comp claims and has a reputation of firing or laying off “the old, the sick and the halt,” so it’s little wonder Halliburton decided that none of its employees deserved any right to a jury trial.

Fast forward to 2005, and Jamie Leigh Jones, an employee of Halliburton subsidiary KBR, goes to Iraq and encounters a slightly upsetting employment situation: she is drugged and gang-raped by her fellow employees, who then lock her in a shipping container and warn her that if she tries to go for medical treatment, she’d be fired. The US Embassy eventually had to free her from the shipping container. Jamie had evidently managed to contact her father, who, after having no luck pursuing her daughter’s protection or safety with KBR or Halliburton, called his US Representative, Ted Poe. Representative Poe similarly had no luck with calling the company, so Rep. Poe had to involve the US Embassy. Obviously, there are embassy witnesses to the allegations.

When Ms. Jones tried to sue in court…SURPRISE!!! Halliburton invoked its binding arbitration clause, and Ms. Jones cannot pursue her claims against her employer in a court of law.

All thanks to Dick Cheney.

So, if you ever ask me in the future why I oppose involuntary binding arbitration, or if I detect that you might be buying the corporate PR messages about how wonderful it is, I’ll simply respond: would you want your consumer dispute against a corporation decided by Dick Cheney?

I would certainly hope not.

Have a wonderful Christmas and you’ll hear from me in the New Year.

Bob Brennan

I often write my own posts to this blog but my clients and contacts often write their own. This is just in from Arizona:

“I am not writing to you seeking advice as I live in Arizona and have consulted an attorney here. My son has been sued by Arrow Financial Services. Nevermind the details of his debt, but they have named as a defendant in the lawsuit. My guess is that either they think I am his spouse or they are extending scare tactics in my direction. I am not a cosigner/ joint holder on this account. I’m sure they were annoyed when I wouldn’t give the process servers Eric’s address. I was annoyed with process servers that identified themselves as “employees of the State of Arizona” that could not produce supporting ID.

“Anyway, I just want to tell you that I couldn’t agree more with the following statement that you had made and that I found while researching AFS cases:

“’America no longer creates any new products. All it creates any more is debt. The key product of our economy is debt, plain and simple, and the debt collectors and major banks use debt to control, and destroy, our entire lives. I’m picking up more and more discontent from consumers because of this debt-driven economy and how we’re all hamsters in hamster-wheels working our tails off just to pay interest to debt collectors and big banks. One day, it’s all gonna break and it just might be a good thing when it does.’”

“I am truly disgusted by this whole junk debt buying industry. This week I am in the middle of final exams, but when they are finished I plan to find out how I can become more involved in this issue. Although I don’t have credit issues, I do have a lot of debt and nothing has been more motivating to me to pay it off than what I see this industry has done to young people, their parents and this country.

“Thank you for doing what you do.”

If any of you, my faithful readers, out there would like to write up something to put onto my blog, write it to me at rbrennan@brennanlaw.com. If it’s appropriate, I’ll put it up & leave your name out unless you specify that you’d like it up there.

Thanks for reading!!!

Bob Brennan

Dear Readers,

Thanks again for tuning in to this channel. I hope each of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Now it’s Christmas time, the time when families most go into debt during the year.

Here’s my Christmas wish for each of you:

1. Avoid going any more into debt than whatever debt load you already have.
2. If your kids want something that it would be tough for you to afford, sit them down and explain to them that you don’t have the money. Believe you me, you will not “scar” them. Many, many great men and women in this country came from modest means, and had to develop the fortitude to stand up to their more financially fortunate friends. It’s part of character.
3. Know in your heart that many of your kids’ “more financially fortunate friends” only appear that way because they are taking on MASSIVE amounts of debt to maintain a false appearance. Sure, there are some rich and fortunate people in this culture, but they are growing more scarce with each passing week as banks and finance companies hire business school graduates to do nothing but sit around 14 hours a day to dream up ways to get honest working people to take on more debt.
4. You declare that, beginning NOW (not on January 1st), you are going to be an exception. You are not going to let the debt vultures run your life any more. Period.
5. You then rearrange your life and your spending habits so you can actually afford your lifestyle. If your kids object, tell them to get a job. That certainly will not hurt them. They’re young kids? Well, can they babysit or help the neighbors with yardwork?
6. About the greatest gift you can give your kids this Christmas is the gift of financial responsibility. Have them read, “The Richest Man in Babylon,” which is inexpensive and available in any major bookstore. Teach them about a budget. Sure, some kids out there might have a pout on their faces when they don’t get their X-Box under the tree, but believe me, that pout will turn into an anguished wail over time if they don’t learn to put tough and dedicated controls in on their own finances.

Here’s a little message I received today from a lady I helped out with a simple referral. I dare say her little message applies to just about all of us:

“Thanks Robert for all the assistance with referrals…I have scoured the Internet and people like you and your colleagues are tough to find and no doubt very busy in your practice.

“Waking up from a 7 year semi-comatose state and looking at the reality of my life has been an “eye” opener in many regards. For many many years I worked overtime, became a slave to debt and wanting to do the “right” thing as I created the debt, but became exhausted just trying to keep up with the demands of paying credit cards and student loans; scared of the phone calls and what other people would say if they only ‘knew” what was really going on behind the facade–cutting myself from friends and family and feeling like a criminal. I now have the wherewithal and confidence not to be intimated, but it came out of my own painful journey and I now understand many people’s plight–I appreciate people like you that take on the the institutional “machines” that can grind people right into the ground physically, mentally, emotionally and most of all spiritually.”

Thanks for reading. Have a truly wonderful Christmas season.

Bob Brennan