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Mr. FRANKEN. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the widespread and harmful impact of forced arbitration--mandatory arbitration. Last November, the New York Times published a three-part investigative series, which I recommend to every Member, on the pervasive use of forced arbitration--or mandatory arbitration. Mandatory arbitration is a privatized system of justice that corporations rely on when their customers or workers seek justice for being cheated, injured, or mistreated.
The series in the New York Times, while shocking, illustrates something that I have been saying for a long time: Mandatory arbitration agreements--forced arbitration agreements, which are often buried in the fine print of employment and service contracts, severely restrict Americans' access to justice by stripping consumers and workers of their legal rights and insulating corporations from liability. From nursing home contracts and employment agreements to credit card and cell phone contracts, corporate America uses forced arbitration clauses to rig the system against ordinary Americans in a wide variety of cases.
My staff recently heard from a Minnesota lawyer who represents families with serious injury and wrongful death claims. He told the heartbreaking story of a man who suffered from dementia and was eventually checked into a nursing home. Twenty-one days after entering the home, it became clear to the man's family that his life was in danger; he was rapidly losing weight and had fallen into a coma. He was then sent to a hospital, where it was discovered that he was suffering from ``profound dehydration.'' Unfortunately, the hospital could not correct the harm caused by the nursing home, and the man died shortly thereafter. He was 71 years old. Then, instead of being able to take the nursing home to court, the man's family was forced to settle their wrongful death claim through arbitration. When all was said and done, the arbitrators actually received greater compensation than the family, and the nursing home got away with a slap on the wrist.
Egregious cases like that of this Minnesota family are not rare. Time and again, arbitration clauses stack the deck in favor of big business and against consumers, as if the deck weren't stacked enough already. As the number of unbelievable stories grows, the need for reform has become clearer and more urgent. That is why I am proud to be joining Senator Leahy, as well as Senators Blumenthal, Durbin, and Whitehouse, in introducing the Restoring Statutory Rights Act to ensure that Americans can enforce their civil rights.
As Members of Congress, we have fought hard to pass legislation that will protect Americans from discrimination. This critical work is undermined, however, if we strip away their right to go to court and instead force these claims into a privatized justice system.
Remember that corporations can write the rules for the arbitration proceedings; everything can be done in secret, without public rulings; discovery can be limited, making it hard for consumers to get the evidence they need to prove their case; and there is no meaningful judicial review, so there is not much a consumer or an employee can do if the arbitrator gets it wrong. It is simply not fair.
I have also introduced with a number of colleagues my own bill, the Arbitration Fairness Act, which would fix these unfair practices by amending the Federal Arbitration Act to prohibit the use of mandatory, predispute arbitration agreements in consumer, employment, civil rights, and anti-trust cases. This bill gives Americans a real choice: If a consumer or worker wants to take his claim into arbitration, then, by all means, he is free to do so, provided that the corporation is willing to do so as well. However, if the consumer or employee wants to go to court, that option will once again be available.
To put it simply, both of these bills are about reopening the courthouse doors to American consumers and workers, because the courthouse doors never should have been closed in the first place.
I ask others to please join me in fighting back against mandatory arbitration and cosponsor the Restoring Statutory Rights Act and the Arbitration Fairness Act.
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