EXTENDICARE'S ROBBINSDALE REHAB AND CARE CENTER IN TROUBLE-- The Star Tribune has reported on December 12, 2009: "Officials have cut federal assistance to new patients at the Robbinsdale Rehab and Care Center because of the errors and failure in care that included those that led to two patient deaths." Click here for more on this story and Extendicare's long history of dangerous care in Minnesota.
Minnesota’s Attorney General, Lori Swanson, and the National Arbitration Forum—the country’s largest administrator of credit card and consumer collections arbitrations—have reached an agreement that the company would get out of the business of arbitrating credit card and other consumer collection disputes. Click here for the Attorney General’s Press Release regarding the settlement. Click here to review the Consent Decree entered into by the NAF.
The settlements followed a complaint filed by the Minnesota Attorney General against the National Arbitration Forum (NAF) on July 14th. The complaint alleged that the NAF had defrauded consumers by concealing its financial ties to the corporate agencies that frequently used NAF arbitrations against unwitting consumers. Click here to see the complaint filed by the Attorney General against the NAF.
This is a major advancement for the protection of consumer against overreaching and unfair corporate practices. LawyerUSA characterizes the settlement as a “stunning turn of events” that throws “into jeopardy hundreds of thousands of arbitrations awards.”
An examination of the NAF’s practices was conducted by a congressional subcommittee chaired by Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich. A Staff Report, entitled “Arbitration Abuse: an Examination of Claims Files of the National Arbitration Forum,” was issued July 21, 2009. In the Report, concluded that such arbitration practices are “for the benefit of the creditor and to the detriment of consumers. … The system is ripe for abuse, and it has been abused by the largest administrator of ‘consumer arbitrations.’”
On June 9, 2009, National Public Radio aired and published a story “Rape Case Highlights Arbitration Debate,” warning that “If you use credit cards, have a cell phone contract, bought a house from a builder or put your mother or father in a nursing home, you have very likely signed away your right to be heard in court if there's a problem. It's called pre-dispute mandatory binding arbitration.” In the NPR story, Public Citizen’s David Arkush explains the effect of “pre-dispute mandatory binding arbitration”: “In the fine print of those contracts is a provision that says that they can never sue the company if they have a dispute,” Arkush says. ”Instead they have to go a private, secret tribunal chosen by the company.”
The NPR story also reveals the “losing record for consumers” – “consumers lost 94 percent of the time” in a study of 34,000 cases. NPR interviewed a Harvard law professor who used to serve as an arbitrator for the National Arbitration Forum. The consumers lost in the first 19 cases that the law professor ruled on. In the 20th case, she ruled in favor of the consumer. “And with that, her career as an NAF arbitrator was effectively over. She says she was stricken from her remaining cases.”
This problem was anticipated in 2003 by then Minnesota Supreme Court Justice James Gilbert in his concurring opinion in the case of Onvoy, Inc. v. SHAL, Inc., et al.:
“[T]he ability of arbitrators and mediators to be impartial is suspect. Many arbitrators and mediators have ties to the industries from which they derive cases. Large numbers of professional arbitrators have been recruited, trained, enlisted and rehired as arbitrators in industry or securities related groups whose cases they are now deciding. Many retail customer agreements contain standard arbitration clauses. Most arbitration associations also publish the amounts of the past awards of their “approved arbitrators.” Any large arbitration award will be documented and noted by industry groups who decide whether they are going to rehire an arbitrator. Arbitrators who have made significant awards could easily be excluded from any new arbitration on behalf of their large retail establishment solely because of a prior significant award. These removal decisions often have no legal underpinnings and are not based on the facts or the merits of the case or the professionalism of the arbitrator. Indeed, many professional arbitrators employed on a regular basis in interstate commerce have become dependent on the will of the industry groups they serve for their tenure in office and the amount in payment of their salaries or compensation. … The federal arbitration system in particular is tilted very strongly in favor of high-volume “repeat customers.”
ARBITRATION FRAUD . . . HAVE YOUR RIGHTS BEEN VIOLATED?
Many nursing home admission contracts include mandatory arbitration clauses, which attempt to prevent residents from enforcing their rights in court, in the event of any injury or other legal claim. If you have been subject to an unfair arbitration clause, especially if the clause required you to arbitrate your claim before the National Arbitration Forum, you need the skill, experience and dedication of the Kosieradzki • Smith Law Firm. CLICK HERE for more details.
