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have you ever opened a credit card bought a phone plan how about rented a car put a family member in a nursing home or even signed an employment contract if so chances are you signed a forced arbitration agreement in the fine print never hurt a forced arbitration will neither have most Americans and companies want to keep it that way because when you agree to forced arbitration you effectively sign away your right to see them so what does that mean arbitration is a way to dispute an action made by a company instead of going in front of a judge and a jury you meet with an arbitrator arbitrators are usually chosen and paid for by the company getting sued and since company's brief repeat businesses to arbitration firms many arbitrators have an economic incentive to rule in their favor our per traders also get to define the scope of evidence they listen to which means they can limit how much evidence a victim presents and allow companies to withhold evidence the decision arbitrators make is final and confidential unlike the public court system victims usually have no way to appeal their case this lack of transparency is dangerous especially when it comes to cases of sexual harassment in the workplace and it gets worse forced arbitration agreements can also ban class-action suits this is when a group of victims with the same issue band together to sue collectively and share the cost of litigation class action suits allow workers and consumers to hold big business accountable and encourage companies to change their practices let's say for instance that you're a low-wage worker at a fast-food franchise and your employer consistently forces you to work off the clock you argue your employer owes you $500 in wages so you try to file a lawsuit with other employees claiming wage theft but the arbitration agreement you signed forces you to act individually that means you could hire your own personal lawyer but in most circumstances people would have a hard time finding a lawyer who'd be willing to take a case where there's so little money involved and there's a different rule book a lot of people would just walk away and that's the point companies know that forced arbitration may discourage victims from pursuing valid claims the Economic Policy Institute estimates that of the roughly 60 million American workers subject to forced arbitration procedures less than one in 32,000 actually file a claim under it every year even if workers do follow through with complaints studies show that they are less likely to win in arbitration than in court and when they do win they win significantly lower damages forcing people into arbitration prevents consumers workers and small businesses from effectively challenging predatory banking practices wage theft and discrimination for the past two decades conservative judges and lawmakers have been expanding the use of forced arbitration agreements this makes it harder for some of society's most vulnerable including workers and low-income people to hold large corporations accountable sound unfair we think so too [Music]