Arbitration clauses: a rights giveaway
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The National Consumer Law Center calls these one-way arbitration clauses a "double standard" in a consumer and media alert issued in 2003, writing: "That means that while consumers may be barred from suing a business over a disagreement, the same business can sue the same consumer in court over the very same case." They note that this clause is the most common type found in consumer contracts and agreements.

Consumers often forced to fly to distant hearings
Many consumers who file arbitration disputes against companies are forced to attend hearings in other parts of the country. Many businesses stipulate that any hearings will be held near their corporate headquarters, which could be hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away from a consumer with a dispute.

If you encounter such a situation, you have to travel to the site of the hearing, paying your own travel costs as well as hotel and meal expenses while the hearing is ongoing. These costs are in addition to your arbitration costs and you have no guarantee that you will get any payment.

Consumers can present limited evidence
In many disputes, to prove your case you need access to documents that the other party has. This is a process known as discovery, where you and your lawyer request documents from the other party in the dispute and that party requests documents from you.

In arbitration, any discovery is solely at the discretion of the arbitrator and only under the more expensive commercial rules. Naimark says that any arbitrator will order disclosure of documents that are necessary and that arbitration prevents lawyers from going on fishing expeditions for documents that aren't relevant to a particular case, saving both parties time and money.

Campbell says that statement is inaccurate. "Anyone who believes that trial courts allow fishing expeditions is horribly misinformed," he says. "Any such judge would get thrown off the bench." He contends that discovery is necessary in many cases to prove that a company has defrauded a consumer because much of the evidence in such cases is circumstantial.

Your right to class-action lawsuits waived
Many arbitration clauses force you to give up your rights to file a class-action lawsuit, which is one of the most powerful remedies that consumers have for forcing change. Under a class action, a judge allows many different people with very similar disputes to join their cases together against a company.

"Class-action lawsuits allow individuals to pool their resources together when they are ripped off by a company for a small amount," says Coulombe. "It's really not economically feasible for someone to sue if they are out $100. But if 100,000 people have the same problem and there is a class action, those people have the possibility of having their day in court to hold a company accountable for large-scale discrimination or fraud. If you remove that possibility, what incentive is there for companies to behave responsibly and improve their business practices?"