Cassville, WI -- U.S. Senator Russ Feingold today outlined his new
legislation, the Consumer Credit Fair Dispute Resolution Act of 2000,
which is designed to protect and preserve the right of American consumers
to take disputes with credit card companies to court. The bill takes on
"mandatory arbitration,"where credit card companies require their
cardholders to settle any disputes before an arbitration panel, rather
than of a court of law, as a condition of using their credit card.
"Today, all credit card companies have to do is slip a few sentences
about ‘mandatory arbitration’ into a consumer’s bill, often without the
consumer’s knowledge, and suddenly cardholders have lost their
constitutional right to a day in court if a dispute arises," Feingold
said. "Instead, cardholders are left with an arbitration process where
their odds of success in a hearing - if they can even afford to get that
hearing in the first place - are close to zero."
While Feingold said that arbitration can be an efficient way to settle
disputes, he stressed that consumers should be able to have the option of
having their case heard in a court of law. But in the case of mandatory
arbitration, consumers can only settle a dispute through an arbitration
firm – usually a firm handpicked by the credit card company. One credit
card company won 99.6 percent of the cases that went before the
arbitration firm it selected. In addition, arbitration can be expensive
for consumers, costing more than bringing the matter to small claims court
and paying a court filing fee.
"With some of the biggest credit card companies adopting mandatory
arbitration policies, the U.S. Senate must act quickly to preserve court
access for consumers," Feingold said. "The Consumer Credit Fair Dispute
Resolution Act of 2000 fights back against mandatory arbitration, and
makes sure that the only thing mandatory for credit cardholders is that
they have the choice to have their case heard in a court of law."
Feingold's 28th Listening Session of 2000, and
532nd since he was first elected in 1992, was held at the
Cassville Village Hall, beginning at 11:45 a.m.
