A cornerstone of the U.S. Chamber's tort reform movement is to allow companies to force consumers into arbitration and waive their rights to a jury trial. This tort "remedy" apparently unclogs the court systems and lessens the burden of the court system on companies. So what does the U.S. Chamber of Commerce do when it meets an industry it does not like?
You guessed it. Push in a provision into the regulation of that industry that keeps the industry from requiring mandatory arbitration or jury trial waivers. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce just succeeded in installing this provision in its bill to remove the "thorn in its side", legal funding (or lawsuit lending as they like to call it) from Tennessee with the help of the Tennessee General Assembly in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sponsored HB 1242 / SB 1360 (with helpful pushes from the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce, NFIB and the Institute for Legal Reform's hired spokesman, Former Georgia AG Thurbert Baker).
Forced arbitration is a bad deal for the consumer, which is why the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has fought so hard over the years - including at the Supreme Court level - to preserve it for its Big Business members. So while prohibiting it is an actual pro-consumer provision, it is hypocritical that its prohibition is being promoted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce when it meets an industry that it perceives as threatening the business model of some of its Big Business members (primarily the 19 largest U.S. corporations).
As noted in a previous diary, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce whipped out its Johnsons (Rep Curtis and Senator Jack) to effectively ban legal funding in Tennessee. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce was doing the bidding of board of director members Allstate and State Farm (USAA jumped into the fray, too), who are adverse in litigation to the consumers that legal funding helps by providing consumers with an economic option to settling for low immediate settlement offers out of financial stress.
In addition to rate caps and a prohibition on accessing bank financing, the U.S. Chamber promoted and pushed in HB 1242/SB 1360 for this prohibition: "Attempt to effect arbitration or otherwise effect waiver of a consumer’s right to trial by jury;"
A bit ironic and hypocritical given the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's long tort reform agenda item of watering down consumers' rights to access the courts and juries though mandatory arbitration and jury trial waivers in the consumer contracts of its members.
For more on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's hostile history on consumer rights, see:
http://www.takejusticeback.com/...
Note this mention:
The U.S. Chamber’s litigation arm, the National Chamber Litigation Center (NCLC) has joined lawsuits to enforce forced arbitration more than 50 times in the last 10 years, including 20 since 2012.
http://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/... (see prohibition #5)