LEGAL SYSTEM »» TORT »» MANDATORY ARBITRATION »» Feb 08, 2021

Mandatory arbitration is a private-sector alternative to the public court system in which grievances are decided by a private panel instead of a jury. Originally, arbitration was used to resolve business-to-business disputes. But in the last 20 years, it has become the method of choice for businesses to resolve disputes with customers. Businesses in virtually every industry have embraced arbitration as faster, cheaper and more efficient than litigation. It is imposed on employees and customers as a routine and often unnoticed condition of doing business. Without realizing it, many consumers, employees, stockholders and patients sign mandatory arbitration clauses in credit, telephone, car and health insurance contracts, bank loans, rental leases, agreements for babysitting, nursing homes, summer camps, house repairs and more. Critics claim arbitration lacks the legal safeguards of our court system and warn that company panels can be tainted with conflicts of interest that might skew the case