Supreme Court: AT&T Can Force Arbitration

suraj.sun writes with this unhappy news, as reported by Ars Technica: "The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that AT&T — and indeed, any company — could block class-action suits arising from disputes with customers and instead force those customers into binding arbitration. The ruling reverses previous lower-court decisions that classified stipulations in AT&T's service contract which barred class arbitration as 'unconscionable.' ... In cases where an unfair practice affects large numbers of customers, AT&T or other companies could quietly settle a few individual claims instead of being faced with larger class-action settlements which might include punitive awards designed to discourage future bad practices."

Comments

It's not "forced" if you agree to it in a contract

[DavidinAla]

The headline is inflammatory and wrong. AT&T can't force you to do anything. All this says is that AT&T can have an element in a contract -- that you can enter into or not -- that if there's a dispute, it goes to arbitration instead of court. If you aren't willing to accept that clause, you don't sign the contract. It's just like any other condition. If you don't like a price or a part of the service or whatever, don't sign a contract.

Punishment should be up to a jury

[Kohath]

Good. People and companies should not be subject to "punitive awards" without a jury trial and the presumption of innocence.

And the court system shouldn't be a lottery for the sleaziest lawyers to hit the jackpot.