Minnesota Attorney General Sues National Arbitration Forum

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Paul Levy" <plevy () citizen org>
Date: July 14, 2009 3:06:25 PM EDT
To: <dave () farber net>
Subject: Minnesota Attorney General Sues National Arbitration Forum

According to this report on the Consumer Law and Policy Blog from one of
my colleagues, the attorney general of Minnesota has brought sued
against the National Arbitration Forum alleging that it has secret
financial ties to one of the country's largest debt collectors, at the
same time that it is a major player in debt collection arbitrations --
according to the complaint, NAF is "the country’s largest debt
collection arbitration company."   Complaint paragraph 3.

At the same time, the NAF fosters the placement of arbitration clauses
in the agreements that will be at issue in arbitrations before it,
telling creditor interests how it will benefit them and mess over their
customers (Complaint paragraph 4):
"In soliciting creditors to use its arbitration services, the Forum
makes representations that align itself against consumers, including,
for example, that “[t]he customer does not know what to expect from
Arbitration and is more willing to pay,” that consumers “ask you to
explain what arbitration is then basically hand you the money,” and
that “[y]ou [the
creditor] have all the leverage [in arbitration] and the customer
really has no choice but to take care of the account.”

The National Arbitration Forum is also one of the biggest players in
the Uniform Dispute Resolution Process ("UDRP") that  ICANN requires be
written into all domain name registration agreements, and fair use
advocates have long felt that the NAF is the best place for complainants
to go to ensure appointment of panels that are biased in favor of the
complainant.  I wonder whether ICANN will yank the NAF's accreditation
as a UDRP provider until it ensures that no similar corruption infects
NAF's UDRP functions.


http://pubcit.typepad.com/clpblog/2009/07/minnesota-attorney-general-sues-national-arbitration-forum.html

Paul Alan Levy
Public Citizen Litigation Group
1600 - 20th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009
(202) 588-1000
http://www.citizen.org/litigation




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