Arbitration Not the American Way
Re “Arbitrary Justice System is the American Way,” March 8:
My experience with arbitration mirrors your article and is an example of why arbitration is truly arbitrary and capricious in nature and is definitely not the American way.
I was never informed by my employer or health maintenance organization that I would be required to go to mandatory, binding arbitration if I had a disagreement with my HMO.
My basic constitutional right to a jury trial was taken away from me surreptitiously. If arbitration is so great, why does everyone requiring it hide it?
I got a 50-page book about my health plan choices from my employer and information from my HMO with no mention of arbitration. Why?
Michael Young, JAMS senior vice president, stated we are represented by plaintiff’s attorneys who are well aware of the process. In fact, most attorneys don’t even want to take an arbitration case. However, this is not the problem. The problem is that we are not informed of the loss of our right to a jury trial until it is too late; then we are shuttled off to a secret arbitration system.
Arbitration is not a time or money saver. Timothy Rabun of Costa Mesa’s Judicial Dispute Resolution stated that arbitration’s “biggest advantage” is speed. This is incorrect. It took three years for my case to get to arbitration and it was going to cost me $20,000 to pay for the arbitrators.
A jury trial would have cost me less because my attorney took my case on contingency. A judgment made in arbitration was not correct according to the law but there is no public record so the judge is insulated from repercussions by the secret society of arbitration.
My case is currently in appeal, which is estimated to take another three years. I am appealing the original Superior Court judgment requiring me to go to arbitration. Three months after making this ruling, the judge retired and went to work for JAMS, a local for-profit arbitration company where he would receive $300 per hour to be an arbitrator for mandated arbitration cases. Might not this “insider trading” between the HMOs, arbitration companies and the judicial system be considered illegal in any other kind of business?
JEAN DUBRAVAC
Fountain Valley