AAA: pointless at best, harmful at worst

Sharon McCann, a guest contributor at Tort Deform, posted about her painful journey through the American Arbitration Association’s (”AAA”) arbitration process as a result of her builder skipping out on building her house in mid-project. After six months or so, McCann says, she finally won, but what?

Essentially, we paid over $2,000.00 more to prove that we had already been shafted for over $100,000.00; to be verbally abused and browbeaten, and to receive a piece of paper that was worthless.

There were certainly mistakes that I made. Had I been able to afford legal counsel, I probably would have done better. But, with losses such as we were facing and no money collectible from the builder no lawyer would take our case without a large retainer. I honestly do not know what would have been gained by using the civil system instead of arbitration. I do know that we were badly screwed by a broken system and left by the side of the road, where for profit vultures, repeated the process.

Partially right. The arbitration system can be exactly what McCann experienced, a method of resolving disputes with no effective remedy. And she is right that she probably would have done better with a lawyer on her side. But not in arbitration. McCann would have gained much by using the civil system. For one thing, even if she ended up with a worthless decision, she would have spent less money to get it. But in the court system, she would have gotten a judgment, which she could have used to collect her money–using various legal processes–from her builder. She can still do that, by filing a lawsuit to enforce the arbitration award, but that is a lot of work, at this point.