If you owned an Arbitration Company….
July 21, 2009
What if you owned an Arbitration company, and the purpose of your company was to resolve consumer credit card disputes. And let’s say the disputes were referred to you by banks who paid your fee. And these banks referred many millions of dollars in disputes to you, which generated millions of dollars in fees. And let’s say the consumers paid you nothing…..ever…. not a dime. And let’s say the banks liked to win – a lot – and had the option of referring cases to other companies and paying millions in fees to those companies instead of to you.
Here’s the question:
How eager would you be to kill this cash cow by finding against the banks and in favor of consumers?
[Circle the answer which best reflects your business plan]
Very eager? Somewhat eager? Not at all eager?…..
…..That’s what I thought.
Well, that’s the way the ostensibly neutral National Arbitration Forum [NAF] of St. Louis, MN did business for many years, routinely separating consumers from their money under the banner of law…..until this week, that is, when they folded up their tent and agreed to get out of Dodge [the consumer arbitration business] once and for all. All this as part of a consent decree to resolve a lawsuit filed by the Minnesota Attorney General alleging widespread consumer fraud and conflict of interest [it seems the NAF had with a wide swath of creditor DNA in its ownership].
So what does this this all mean?
1. Ding Dong the witch is dead.
2. If you are facing a petition in a court of law to confirm an adverse award by the NAF, make sure the judge knows about this latest development; and,
3. If you are looking to set up a corrupt, anti-consumer arbitration company, the time is definitely now…..
