A series of unconnected stories?
Woman Wants Homeowner Associations to Make Decisions in Public
Sucker: Mandatory Arbitration Provisions
Avoid Signing Your Rights Away
The connection? All of the stories center around circumstances where individuals have signed their rights away in a contract, either willing, unwilling or unknowingly.
It’s hard to fathom that first sucker:
Used Car Dealer: Well here is your purchase agreement, you just need to sign on the dotted line…
Gullible: Well, OK, hey whats this? It’s says I won’t sue you….
UCD: …. standard contract langu…..
G: …and that if I do I have to pay your attorney fees…
UCD: …it’s intended to discourage frivolous lawsuits…
G: .. and that’s only if your ‘Executive Committee Arbitration Board’ rules in my favor!
UCD: Listen, do you want the car or not?
G: ….well it is a nice car, and what a great price!
Let’s take a moment and review some basic assumptions of government. Our Constitution does NOT grant our rights, rather, it forms and organizes the government to protect them. They are inalienable and unrepeatable unless due process is given. Now, the problem here is that contracts are private agreements- the only legitimate way rights can be curtailed.
The exception of course is when the process by which you sign those rights away is under duress, uninformed, or through coercion. Subtlety is an art, show a little too much and the meaning is too apparent, not enough and it has no meaning. Read through the fine print of the User Licensing Agreement that comes with most of your computer software- do you REALLY agree to all of the terms therein? And why is it that the user agreements are INSIDE the box when most stores will not take them back once the outer packaging has been removed?
My point is this: it seems to me that our rights are very rarely taken away by force. Rather, subtle social pressures, contractual mumbo jumbo and awkward social consumerism have eroded our ability to stalwartly and steadfastly retain all of our God-given rights. Anyone who purchased a new car is subject to this, even if your right to sue wasn’t taken away with your intent, know for sure they probably snuck a mandatory arbitration agreement in there.
So what is wrong with arbitration agreements? Simple, Arbiters are very rarely, if ever, fair. In fact, by most accounts, well over 75% of all Arbiters rule against the private citizen in the complaint. And another thing- Arbiters are not chosen by chance- rather the firm or legal team chosen to be the Arbiter is chosen by the company that writes the contract of purchase. The consumer has no say in this decision, and certainly these firms are chosen by their willingness to rule in favor of those whom send them business- the company that lists them as Arbiter in the contract.
Another fine example is that of homeowner associations. In the purest Libertarian worldview, Homeowner Associations are free-market examples of how society “could” operate without local land-use regulations. And to some extent, they are right. It does give a free-market answer to those pesky neighbors down the street whom have the audacity to put an American flagpole in their yard. The shame of it! But seriously, HOA’s are neither fair nor equitable. Most counties do not require advance notice of board meetings, or even the right of homeowners to attend their Board meetings.
How exactly does this protect and promote a free and open process? It doesn’t. And here is another fun tidbit- if you live in an HOA, pull out your regulations. Do you have the right to repeal a board member? If you do, consider yourself lucky. A vast majority of county HOA regulations do not require that the most local level of ‘government’, that of your HOA, preserve the right to a fair and open election process with the right of recall of an elected official. But then, I guess, they would be a little less likely to raise your Association Dues, now wouldn’t they?
Private ‘justice’ cannot take away or supersede our right to an impartial jury of our peers. Anything less is Un-American.
Is there a place for Arbiters? Homeowners’ Associations? SUA’s? Certainly, as long as it is only a procedural step in an attempt to resolve the dispute and as long as it does not stop either party from engaging in their rights. And that is the problem, a vast majority of what is out there is not designed to engage its side, but rather to take away your rights. And that, my dear readers, really does remind us of the phrase, “signing away your rights”. No?
Merry Christmas From LedeAgenda.com!!! I hope your holidays are merry, your occasions memorable, and most importantly that Liberty and Freedom ring bright into the New Year!
