Then consumers can be liable for thousands more just to get the arbitrator to hear the case. No Time-Tested Rules Courts have strict rules, developed over hundreds of years as to what evidence they can consider, what procedures judges must follow and how judges must conduct themselves. Under arbitration, there are no rules to force big corporations turn over records, conduct themselves properly during proceedings or to force arbitrators to consider important evidence before ruling. No Due Process Get a bad ruling from a judge and it is not the end of the world, an appeals court can set things right. Arbitration rulings are final.
Nothing forces the arbitrator to follow the basic rule of law.
Worse, many arbitrators have no legal training. Unfair Forum Judges have strict rules to act in an unbiased manner and to remove themselves from a case where they have a conflict of interest. Arbitrators not only do not have these rules, they often advertise their services to big corporations with claims of how much money they can save the big corporation. As members of the automobile dealers industry are fighting at the state level to impose binding arbitration on consumers, they are working just as hard at the federal level to exempt themselves from it. Read about the effort to bring some fairness to this bill.