Bend over now, nickel and dime cheats get OK by SCOTUS 5-4

[gpatt0n]

Mandatory arbitration over relatively small disputes between consumers and major corporations favor corporations is the claim and it is so bad that Georgia consumer advocate Clark Howard calls arbitration hearings a kangaroo court.

 

So guess what happened. Yes, the US Scrupreme Court decided that mandatory binding arbitration is legal as a part of consumer contracts and if you got a beef, well that's tough.

 

How tough,

 

The particular case the Supremes ruled on involved in AT&T. For some 6 years, AT&T pulled a bait-and-switch by offering something for free but then charged $30 for it. There's no dispute on those facts whatsoever. The only question was whether or not AT&T should be subject to a class-action lawsuit.

 

Of course no one could get reimbursed through binding arbitration - you claim, you lose apparently (probably some small print that said you had to file a claim in writing within 24 hours of the allegedly bogus charge or some such - and so when folks came up with a class action lawsuit because they had been ripped off, ATT took it to the Supremes who said in a predictable 5 Republican to 4 Democrat decision ... bend over

 

Folks like former federal Judge H. Lee Sarokin, writing in the Huff Post, said flatly that the decision means that small claims effectively cannot be pursued against big corporations.

 

Judge Lee said, "in rendering this decision, the Supreme Court has permitted alleged corporate fraud to go unheard and unpunished and, in turn, has silenced the voice of the consumer in the process."

 

pubby

[Georgia Dawg]

I didn't realize that the justices were Republican or Democrat. I thought they were conservative-leaning or liberal-leaning. I guess I'll have to look for that R or D after their name.

[Coppertop's Pop]

amazing, just amazing. the little guy always gets shafted

[eym_sirius]

This is just one more reason for people to support small business and to deal with merchants on a face-to-face basis whenever possible. I've been a plaintiff in a class-action suit or two. Class action suits for small claims are a joke! You end up, three years later, getting $5.72!!!

 

 

 

In the example given, customers were told that something was going to be free and it cost them $30. Free???? Hello - if someone's giving something away, THERE'S A CATCH!!!

 

For-profit companies don't make deals that have a negative consequence!!! For the people who thought that they were getting something for nothing? Check yourself!!!

 

Now if you have a claim against a company for a million bucks - Go for it!

 

If you thought that you were going to get something for nothing and you feel like you were deceived because you DIDN"T GET SOMETHING FOR NOTHING --- CHECK YOURSELF!!

[gpatt0n]

I didn't realize that the justices were Republican or Democrat. I thought they were conservative-leaning or liberal-leaning. I guess I'll have to look for that R or D after their name.

 

The party designation is based on who made the appointment.

 

Republican presidents have five justices on the court that are there to look out for the interests of big business and Democratic presidents appointed four of the nine justices who tend to lend more weight to those aspects of the law that protect the individual interests instead of corporate interests. (To wit, it was a court with about the same makeup that established in the American United case that corporations are 'people' under the law and so have full free speech rights including the ability to spend and ultimately buy elections.

 

Me, I think they should put a bounty on every corporation that can speak as it is unearthly abomination that no doubt would require a wooden stake through its ... uhhhhh ... ledger book I guess ... to kill it because I don't think I've ever heard of a corporation with anything approximating a heart.

 

pubby

 

PS: The GOP has been the party of the corporations literally from its founding with one exception - that was when Teddy Roosevelt was President and that anomaly ended when he became a bull moose.

[Georgia Dawg]

Justice Kennedy, who was appointed by Republican President Reagan, occasionally votes with the liberals.

(Toobin, Jeffrey. The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, Doubleday, 2007 ISBN 0-385-51640-1)

 

 

[jsbeagle]

Small claims only ever benefit the lawyer anyway.

 

All the court said is that if you enter a contract with someone or a corporation, or whatever that includes mandatory arbitration, then if you have a beef, you'll do mandatory arbitration.

 

If you don't want that, don't do business with them.

 

I know it doesn't really seem possible to do this (and its probably not), but we can't have the courts voiding contracts just because one party doesn't like them.

[markdavd]

Class action suits are designed for one thing - to make law firms rich.

 

The plaintiffs get a coupon or a few dollars or other insignificant amount while the attorneys make millions.

[zoocrew]

Class action suits are designed for one thing - to make law firms rich.

 

The plaintiffs get a coupon or a few dollars or other insignificant amount while the attorneys make millions.

 

And corporations can keep being unethical.

 

Small claims only ever benefit the lawyer anyway.

 

All the court said is that if you enter a contract with someone or a corporation, or whatever that includes mandatory arbitration, then if you have a beef, you'll do mandatory arbitration.

 

If you don't want that, don't do business with them.

 

I know it doesn't really seem possible to do this (and its probably not), but we can't have the courts voiding contracts just because one party doesn't like them.

 

 

Contracts have to be fair in order to be binding.

 

 

[eym_sirius]

And corporations can keep being unethical.

 

 

Contracts have to be fair in order to be binding.

 

 

 

Of course Big Corporations can keep being unethical! What do you think a CEO getting a million bucks a month in stock options is, but unethical? It's a major screwing of the regular stockholder. But there's this thing called "due diligence". There's a responsibility on the part of the individual to look past the superficial.

 

Take the "male enhancement pills". Well, don't actually TAKE them! But consider them. Should disappointed men sue the company? Or should they have looked into the company's claims before giving the credit card number over the phone? Would you please explain how individual responsibiity comes into play in your ideology?

 

I'm also interested in your statement "Contracts have to be fair in order to be binding". You're saying that a person or a business can back out on a contract using "lack of fairness" as the reason? Perhaps you can provide a link that shows where contract law has this "fairness" provision?

[+North of the Border]

Huffington Post as a source....Come on Pubby you can do better than that.

[Cathyhelms]

Wow, talk about double standards!! Nothing about a contract has to be fair.....................most contracts are very one sided, some actually benefit both parties. If you don't read the fine print, you have failed yourself, that's fair. Once you sign it or agree to the terms, yep it's binding.

 

 

I agree with eym_sirius on this and would love a link as well, I might even click on that one.

 

I'm also interested in your statement "Contracts have to be fair in order to be binding". You're saying that a person or a business can back out on a contract using "lack of fairness" as the reason? Perhaps you can provide a link that shows where contract law has this "fairness" provision?