Wayne Hogan supports the work of Public Justice in opposing the abuses that occur when consumers are manipulated to sign away their constitutional rights through unfair arbitrations clauses.
Corporations throughout America are increasingly inserting mandatory arbitration clauses in their form consumer, employment, and investor agreements that prohibit lawsuits against them and force their customers, workers, and shareholders out of court and into arbitration heavily weighted in the companies’ favor.
These clauses, usually buried in small print, are designed to eradicate the right to a day in court. There’s often no knowledge or choice. For workers, keeping a job is viewed as “agreeing” to the provision. Nearly all credit card, phone, mortgage and computer companies now use them, as do banks, HMOs, car dealers, doctors, and insurers. The courts are now deciding whether such clauses can be used to make customers, employees, and shareholders contractually “waive” all their rights. These mandatory arbitration clauses are even being used to prevent workers from accessing their rights under the Nation’s labor laws.
