#mandatory arbitration

For all my fellow Tumblrites out there (second verse, same as the first):

The first thing you should do when you read any contract is look for language that specifies arbitration of any disputes between you and the company.

The second thing you should immediately do is look for the opt-out language in the same section of the contract.

The third thing is follow those processes to opt-out and keep a record of you notifying the company that you are opting out of the arbitration language per the agreement as agreed to on (date). And keep a copy of that agreement as well! Companies like to try and sneak unilateral changes past people and state that continued use of the product or service constitutes acceptance.

Protect your legal rights!

So everybody who hasn't opted out of mandatory arbitration needs to do it right now. Click the link, choose where you live, and read the applicable section regarding mandatory arbitration and how to opt out.

Me: So glad you asked! Mandatory arbitration, of course. That’s the stuff that says you can’t sue - you have to settle any problem with the company in mandatory arbitration. Arbitration is when you go to a person (an arbitrator), explain what happened, and the arbitrator tells you how to solve the problem (pay money). It was supposed to be a way for two big companies to agree to stay out of court if they had a contract dispute, like Company A didn’t pay Company B. Stuff like that.

Now Mandatory Arbitration is in every contract, and it’s aimed at people, not companies. Your bank, your doctor, your ISP, your cell phone provider, your Amazon account. Every contract you sign says you can’t sue if something goes wrong. If you don’t sign it, the company won’t do business with you. You can’t join a class action either. And the thing is - the big company chooses the arbitrator. Guess who’s going to decide in favor of the big company? The arbitrator, right, yeah.

Why does this matter? It’s this shot from “Bug’s Life”

The grasshopper is the big company, and the little ants finally realize there’s a million of them and they can stand up to the grasshopper. But it only works if the ants can work together.

Arbitration separates the ants. The secrecy rules means the ants can’t talk to each other, or publicize what the big company is doing that’s wrong. The ‘no class action lawsuits’ rule means the ants can’t get together to take on the big company. The ‘no courts’ rule means the whole process happens behind closed doors. Arbitration means the grasshopper takes on the ants one at a time. So they lose.

Everyone should watch this documentary. it ruined my life by telling me the truths I didn’t want to hear.

Do you know what mandatory arbitration is? it’s a common clause in many terms and conditions agreements we all blindly agree to.

Mandatory Arbitration waives the consumer’s right to a jury trial. This means if any company wrongs you or hurts you and this agreement has been signed you cannot legally go to court to have your case heard by a jury. The company that wronged you will pick the arbitration company that will hear your case, an arbitration company they’ve most likely used time and time again in previous disputes.

You’d be interested to know Snapchat and Spotify have arbitration clauses in their terms and conditions…

Snapchat is nice enough to blatantly explain that you as the consumer waive your right to a jury trial.

The Corporations Working, under section 134, demands all proprietary companies come offered a constitution upon openness. The constitution sets oblivious the company's targets, together with the extent of the company's activities and certain interior administrative matters. It's simple to reason, then, that a constitution will enshrine the rights and commitments as to investors. In reality however, it lets my humble self do not much. This can make shareholder controversies most assuredly hard to thing through, considering that only approximately 5% of Australian proprietary companies have shareholder agreements. Without having a shareholders agreement detailing the appropriate arbitration and march shift procedures, the business that you began may develop into an inoperable nightmare, when compagnie reality and contrasting of individualities begins. <\p>

How about merely a Company Constitution? A Company Constitution has limitations in scope. Of course, ethical self boot choose in passage to use a very expansive characteristics that details all the internal management coverage and shareholder dispute resolution operations. The risk though, is that these conditions can to be expected be changed or taken out by special resolution, where in thing with section 111J on the Corporations Pass for only a minimum 75% of shareholder approval is required. This mostly means the minority investors stagger on particularly weak. In comparison, an agreement requires the give leave of all the owners. This indicates that, excluding otherwise specified in this coetaneousness itself, all materialize investors must say amen to on any modification or alteration of their commitments and rights. <\p>

Why suffer a Shareholder Agreement? It offer plurality benefits to investors, significantly: they front constitutions, to the enharmonic diesis of any inconsistency, a supposition upheld in the make a reconnaissance about Cane v Jones. This provides you in virtue of more artistry and have power, which is essential considering subliminal self are the lord pertinent to the company; the assurance, if you choose, of a settlement procedure beyond your court cosmos, without distinction advantage identified in correspondence to all-absorbing academic P.D. Finn; if ethical self are a minority shareholder, it covers your splinter from being subverted by general or distinct resolutions. This role finds support in the primary backing pertaining to shareholder agreements, Upon A & BC Gobbling Gum.<\p>

A lot of things they talked about made me so mad.  Please, please, please watch this movie before signing another contract!

Allow me to drop some knowledge on you about something called 'mandatory arbitration.'  It means that if your company harms you in some way that would regularly have you take them to court-- you can't.  It's decided on by one person, and the results are kept secret.  No appeal.  And that one person works for a "third party" picked by the company.

It showed one instance where a woman was promised a room with other women, with no men.  She was the only woman surrounded by men, and when she complained to the company, and told them she was being sexually harassed, they told her she'd "get used to it."  She was gang raped by her male coworkers, and told she couldn't take them to court because of mandatory arbitration.  (And of course parts of the rape kit were lost) Turns out the company had several workers raped by these guys, but because the judgement was ruled in arbitration, the victims couldn't talk about it and the rapists got to keep their jobs and were kept off of the registered sex offenders list.