| I am very familiar with arbitration agreements and how they both are enforced and came about. For years companies have tried in vain to get theses clauses accepted by the courts and failed, until recently when SCOTUS chimed in with their decision: Congress wanted the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) of the 1920s to be the law of the land and forced arbitration was considered statutorily okay.. The FAA [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Arbitration_Act, 1925] originally was a maritime law, where two parties in different countries would rather pick an arbiter to decide their dispute rather than in any one country. What may surprise people is it's not just the signing of a contract, which enables this clause to be enforced, but also just a business' intent to settle cases arbitrarily. For instance, opening up a package of something you just bought might show intent that the contract therein is what you agree to. One nurse wasn't going to sign her rights away to an arbitration agreement, so she told her company 'no' to renegotiating her employment contract. But the courts upheld that she knew the intent of her employer and forced her into arbitration. These companies are hiring their own judges, basically. What's scary is that these just aren't private contracts, and private court systems we are dealing with -- but private law! SCOTUS ruled recently that even if the parties do not like the outcome of the arbitration decision, they have no legal recourse. Imagine going into a situation where a company knows the history of a judges decision and you do not? How incredibly unfair, let alone intimidating. I wouldn't even bother to sue, would you? I won't go on about this. I can write a lot. Here's a list of links I collected about companies shorting the normal process of laws that protect citizens. The area is non-compete agreements: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/more-firms-requiring-non-co... http://www.lexisnexis.com/legalnewsroom/labor-employment/b/l... http://rickmasseyblog.com/2010/10/04/are-you-trapped-by-a-no... http://www.romingerlegal.com/floridacourts/court_opinions2/5... http://apps.americanbar.org/litigation/committees/adr/articl... http://www.justice.org/cps/rde/justice/hs.xsl/19905.htm http://www.flacorplaw.com/Non-Competes.html http://thenoncompeteblog.com/2013/01/18/prominent-florida-ch... http://floridamediationgroup.com/articles/spero/2000_Employe... http://www.noncompetenews.com/?tag=/Arbitration http://www.franczek.com/frontcenter-Nitro-Lift_Arbitration_N... http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-08-01/jobs/sns-20120... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quZL7WKLXt4 |