I was under the impression that class-action lawsuits were already a possibility for consumers.
Contracts in the US are allowed to include clauses forbidding class-action suits and mandating binding arbitration in their place.
Let Consumers Sue Companies
31–40 of 279 posts
Re: Let Consumers Sue Companies
#32Re: Let Consumers Sue Companies
#33“only a lunatic or a fanatic sues for $30.” A bit off topic here but this is IMHO a great challenge for AI: making a lawyer affordable for the masses when they are bullied by banks, airlines, etc. If it costs you $5 , why not sue for $30 ?
Because the risk of paying litigation expense is in the four, five or six figures.
Chasing a return with a potential risk of loss several orders of magnitude higher is insane.
Re: Let Consumers Sue Companies
#34I never understood why binding arbitration was legal for non-negotiated contracts. Also, by reading this you agree all disputes between us will go through an arbitration firm of my choosing.
The courts actually prefer it as a lower cost alternative.
The courts do, or buisinesses who lobbied congress for the mechanism do? Speculation, I don't actually know how this sausage got made, but I imagine it had a lot of grease from big companies.
Re: Let Consumers Sue Companies
#35“only a lunatic or a fanatic sues for $30.” A bit off topic here but this is IMHO a great challenge for AI: making a lawyer affordable for the masses when they are bullied by banks, airlines, etc. If it costs you $5 , why not sue for $30 ?
Why not create an AI bank instead so you never suffer the $30 loss anyway?
And we could say turn to the blockchain and smart contracts which market themselves as replacements for both real money and real lawyers, but we saw what happens when real techies write the smart contracts (case in point $150M DAO scam and then a fork of the blockchain itself), so we are definitely going to need to replaces software makers and coders with AI too.
Re: Let Consumers Sue Companies
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not up to the courts. Congress passed a law, the Federal Arbitration Act, which explicitly instructs the courts to treat arbitration provisions at least as favorably as any other contract provision. In the absence of a conflicting Constitutional provision, the courts have no choice but to enforce the statute Congress passed.
Correction: American Arbitration Act (aka AAA).
Wikipedia disagrees: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Arbitration_Act
Re: Let Consumers Sue Companies
#37Just look at how the EU consumer protection directives are working over here. You're simply not allowed to waive your guaranteed rights as a customer in some sort of EULA or TOS. And if you are forced to, the whole contract is void in it's entirety and you're free to walk away from it.
Although bear in mind that class-action law suits, which are the focus of this article, are typically not a right you have in the EU in the first place (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_action#Class_actions_out...).
Re: Let Consumers Sue Companies
#38I never understood why binding arbitration was legal for non-negotiated contracts. Also, by reading this you agree all disputes between us will go through an arbitration firm of my choosing.
The courts actually prefer it as a lower cost alternative.
Im a lawyer, you may be one too as we are a dime a dozen, but if not here is a dirty little secret...
The courts don't care what your litigation costs are, the only thing they care about is having as few cases on their docket as possible (i.e. They care about their own costs and their own workload).
Re: Let Consumers Sue Companies
#39Letting consumers continue to sue is not the answer. It only incentivizes more litigiousness, which is part of the things that are ruining American society. What we need instead is for the government to pursue these crimes on our behalf. The fines should be draconian with no options for them to dilute it the way the SEC does. And the fines should go towards some fund that specializes in charities instead of going to…
Consumers exercising their rights through the courts is ruining American society? Wow, what a world we live in.
Re: Let Consumers Sue Companies
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
The courts actually prefer it as a lower cost alternative.
The courts do, or buisinesses who lobbied congress for the mechanism do? Speculation, I don't actually know how this sausage got made, but I imagine it had a lot of grease from big companies.
The prevailing narrative is that the court system is somehow constantly overloaded, so everything from settling out of court to plea bargains to private arbitration are favored.