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Re:‘Star Citizen’ Court Case Reveals the Messy Reality of Cr... by pjc50 on Wednesday July 18, 2018 @10:54AM (#17558957)
It's expensive for businesses because they tend to find in favour of the consumer, whereas with forced arbitration the business can pick the most biased arbitrator to rule in their favour.
Re:‘Star Citizen’ Court Case Reveals the Messy Reality of Cr... by jellicle on Wednesday July 18, 2018 @11:08AM (#17559108)
Well, okay. Right. I agree. I just don't want people reinforcing the meme that "justice is always slow and expensive and that's why businesses want arbitration" when the real reason is "courts are too fair and that's why businesses want arbitration". The accessibility, fairness, speed and low cost of small claims courts to poor individual litigants is a bug, not a feature, from the perspective of the US's larger corporations.
Re:‘Star Citizen’ Court Case Reveals the Messy Reality of Cr... by Karunamon on Wednesday July 18, 2018 @12:53PM (#17560004)

    <comment class='devils-advocate'/>
From what it seems like, most large companies tend to use the same few arbitration firms. JAMS and AAA come up often in the contracts I've read. How often does this "arbitrator shopping" actually happen? It's a complaint I hear often, but little in the way of data to support it.

I have seen data to suggest that arbitrators rule often in the favor of the companies, but that could be a result of more people raising bullshit claims since it's significantly easier to do so.

Re:‘Star Citizen’ Court Case Reveals the Messy Reality of Cr... by pixl97 on Wednesday July 18, 2018 @02:12PM (#17560737)
>om what it seems like, most large companies tend to use the same few arbitration firms

Maybe the other arbitrators went out of business because they ruled on the consumer side.

See: survivorship bias.

Re:‘Star Citizen’ Court Case Reveals the Messy Reality of Cr... by Karunamon on Wednesday July 18, 2018 @02:55PM (#17561096)
I'd love to see the data either way. "Arbitration is popular because it always screws the customer!" is a wonderful emotionally-evocative talking point, but that seems way too simplistic and pithy for me.
Re:‘Star Citizen’ Court Case Reveals the Messy Reality of Cr... by MaupitiBlue on Wednesday July 18, 2018 @09:04PM (#17563295)
Arbitrators, like jurors, tend to split the baby if there is a halfway decent rationalization for doing so.