I have been reading on Motherjones.com recently about mandatory binding arbitration clauses that many companies are currently using to prevent getting sued in civil court. I have been looking around for some legal precedents about this, and I have been unable to find any. (I am not an attorney, nor do I pretend to be) My question to dkos is this: Do these clauses violate the 7th Amendment, and if they do, what is the best action plan to put a stop to this practice?
Today on Motherjones.com, Stephanie Mencimer has written about Jamie Jones and her alleged drugging and rape at the hands of KBR contractors in Iraq. The outrage of this case is the fact that the military nor the Justice Department has prosecuted her attackers, and now due to a clause that Dick Cheney instituted at Halliburton when he was CEO she may also be unable to sue KBR for damages in civil court for placing her in harm's way.
The reason she is currently unable to sue for damages is because
she (Jones) signed contracts containing mandatory binding arbitration clauses, which required her to give up her right to sue the companies and any right to a jury trial. Instead, the contracts forced Jones to press her case through private arbitration, which she did in 2006. In that forum, the company that allegedly wronged her pays the arbitrator who is hearing the case.
I have also been the victim of such a clause when a rental truck I rented wasn't sealed to block out the elements properly, and I lost about 70% of my things due to water damage. I purchased insurance from my rental truck carrier, but I didn't see the part with mandatory arbitration in the volumes of paperwork that dealt with the insurance and rental.
When I filed my claim of damage due to equipment failure, my claim was denied by the company. Their reason for denial was that the truck was not at fault, because of no equipment failure. I provided pictures of the leaking cargo box to the company, and they claimed it was water from when I opened the door while it was raining. I then filed a civil claim against them in municipal court. Their attorney got the suit thrown out because of the mandatory arbitration clause. I went to arbitration, and the arbitration company hired by the rental truck company said the case was without sufficient evidence found in favor of the company.
At this point, I lost all of my furniture, my computer, and most of my clothes to severe water damage. I had just moved across the country for a new job, and basically had to start over with nothing. This happened 3 years ago, and I'm still hurting from the financial hit I took. The more I read about this, the more it looks like companies are trying to keep out of civil court because juries usually find fault against them. Arbitration keeps things quiet since it isn't held in public court.
If companies are taking away your right to sue in civil court with mandatory arbitration clauses, how does this not violate your 7th Amendment rights? If this does violate our 7th Amendment rights, what are the best action steps to take against companies that use these clauses? What should we do next to procect our rights as consumers?
Please post all questions and comments, all are appreciated.