ARBITRATION IS A DEFENSE WEAPON

ARBITRATION IS A DEFENSE WEAPON

Why do businesses and corporations want arbitration and not trials? There are a number of reasons, which include some of the following:

  1. Lower damage awards No jury & arbitrators are statistically more conservative
  • Elimination of class actions. Most arbitration clauses require individual claims &  bar class or collective actions. This converts one systemic wrong → hundreds of small, uneconomic claims, avoiding massive exposure → scattered, manageable costs.
  • Repeat-player advantage Corporations appear in arbitration repeatedly, are familiar to arbitration providers, and indirectly influence arbitrator selection through frequency. Plaintiffs are one-time participants.  Even neutral arbitrators know that large awards reduce future appointments.
  • Restricted discovery Arbitration typically limits depositions, internal documents, corporate emails, financials, and risk analyses. This weakens liability proof,  cripples damage narratives and prevents “smoking gun” evidence
  • Speed favors defendants. Plaintiffs need time to develop harm and damages & corporations already control the evidence.
  • Confidentiality Arbitration is private: No public filings, no precedent & no media scrutiny
  •  Minimal appellate review: Arbitration decisions are extremely hard to appeal and Almost never reversed
  • Forum control Corporations draft the arbitration clause, venue rules, governing law & damage limitations

Arbitration replaces community judgment with professional risk aversion.  Limits on discovery weaken damages proof. Repeat-player bias favors institutional defendants. Secrecy suppresses precedent and leverage. Corporations insist on arbitration because it converts unpredictable jury justice into controlled, private, and repeat-player decision-making—with sharply reduced damage risk. Mandatory arbitration does not merely change the forum. It re-engineers the damage model—removing juries, suppressing evidence, and substituting private decision-makers whose incentives are misaligned with full compensation. Arbitration converts public justice into private cost control

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