Senate Hearing on Binding Arbitration

[Guest guest]

" We are asking that people who have had adverse experiences

with Binding Arbitration to, please submit your complaints

via GiveMeBackMyRights - Tell Us Your BMA Horror Stories

(http://www.givemebackmyrights.com/bma-tellus.php). "

> On June 12 at 10:30 AM Eastern time there was

> a hearing in Washington, DC regarding the pitfalls of

> binding mandatory arbitration for consumers. Jordan Fogal,

> a homeowner from Houston who was HADD by her builder and

> had mold, ended up letting her home go to foreclosure. She

> is the only consumer who testified. You can watch the

> hearing at this link

> http://judiciary.house.gov/oversight.aspx?ID=337

>

> Sharon

>

> As posted on ToxLaw by Ms. Fogal:

If Arbitration is just so wonderfull, then why is it forced

on us?

The first night in our new home, my husband decided to try

out his new Jacuzzi tub on the third floor. When he pulled

the plug, one hundred gallons of water crashed through our

dining room ceiling. This was not one overlooked plumbing

connection, as my husband so desperately wanted to believe.

It was a preview of coming attractions.

Our builder . They would seal up the windows on the inside

so the water wouldn't come in, and then they would seal up

the cracks in the outside stucco so the water wouldn't run

out. So, the walls just filled up with water and mold..

We had the mold tested by an accredited laboratory, and they

said they had never seen toxic readings that high in an

inhabited dwelling. Prior to this, we had not mentioned the

nosebleeds, headaches, the swollen eyes, and the sinus

infections because we had seen how people were treated.

Their defects were dismissed because the homebuyers were

crazy hypochondriacs.

Our builder Tremont Homes/ Stature Construction Company knew

how defective our house was, so they took out some

insurance. They added a binding arbitration clause to our

earnest money contract.

According to arbitration clauses, any dispute past, present,

or future puts the builder in a fail-safe position... and the

homeowner forever in jeopardy. We have lost our right to a

trial by jury, our seventh amendment rights that we thought

were guaranteed under the constitution; and now many of us

are being frightened into giving up our first (freedom of

speech).

The builders can force us into arbitration by simply calling

us disputes, which we most certainly all are. We are

supposed to buy and shut up; or after we have signed this

consumer-cursed clause, we are in impending danger. Many of

us now understand arbitration, and would advise any homeowner

to avoid it like the plague. Foreclosure is not as painful,

abborrant, or as humiliating as binding arbitration.

Arbitration is like a jail sentence: your possessions and

money are taken from you; others have complete control over

your lives. You are forced in legal handcuffs into a secret

kangaroo court held behind closed doors and the rules of law

no longer apply. No one will know what happens to you. It

will just be your word against the builder.

Arbitration is used to victimize and silence what these

builders are doing. If you do not complain... or try to get

your house repaired, or just let it go into foreclosure...

then you can escape arbitration, and you will avoid being

raped again. Raped again ...that was what a woman from

Milford Ohio called arbitration last week... she is 82 years

old.

You are guilty until you prove your innocence; the entire

burden of proof is on you, the homeowner. Everything you

have ever known; it is upside down. The perpetrator has been

allowed to file on the victim. This is like sending a small

child into a room of sexual predators without supervision.

Why would anyone ever chose to go behind closed doors

without a clue as to what was going to happen to them...

knowing whatever ridiculous decision was rendered... it would

not-only be upheld by the court... but there would be no

appeal!

Most victims of arbitration come out in shock; many are under

gag orders, referred to as secrecy agreements so they cannot

tell what has been done to them.

There are lots and lots of advertisements by the builders in

the Houston Chronicle. Strange, how they overlooked the

Judiciary Hearing on arbitration clauses - Tuesday, June 12,

2007...where a Houstonian received an invitation to testify

before a subcommittee of the United States Congress, on the

effects of binding arbitration on the consumer. Read that

testimony at Written Testimony Submitted by Jordan Fogal

(http://judiciary.house.gov/OversightTestimony.aspx?ID=983),

There are two bills that have been introduced in the House

relating to Binding Arbitration and the Federal Arbitration

Act (FAA): HR 1443 (Consumer Fairness Act of 2007) and HR

1519 (American Homebuyers Protection Act).

The hearing at which Jordan testified, was a preliminary,

informative hearing on how Binding Arbitration affects

consumers. It may have been a prerequisite to pass these

bills. If the sub-committee endorses these bills, they will

then go to the House floor for passage, then on to the Senate.

We are asking that people who have had adverse experiences

with Binding Arbitration to, please submit your complaints

via GiveMeBackMyRights - Tell Us Your BMA Horror Stories

(http://www.givemebackmyrights.com/bma-tellus.php).

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