Discussion #3: Arbitration Clauses

Description

All students need to complete this assignment, by submitting a 1-2 paragraph response with 3-5 sentences per paragraph.

This week you learned about an alternative to going to court when involved in a dispute: arbitration. Whether you realize it or not, all of you have signed a contract with an arbitration clause at some point or another (and most of you have likely signed many of them). In these contracts, you gave up your right to sue someone in court to get compensation if they caused harm to you and your property.

For this week’s discussion assignment, describe an arbitration clause or arbitration contract you have signed. Explain whether you realized you were giving up your right to go to court at the time you signed it. If you did, discuss why you chose to give up your right to sue whoever asked you to sign it, even if they were to cause you harm. If you were not aware of what you were signing – which many people aren’t – discuss whether you would sign the same contract again now that you understand you were giving up your right to sue in court. And explain why or why not.

Students that submit Chat-GPT generated responses that consist of a generic explanation of arbitration contracts/clauses will get a zero on this assignment and a zero for the Participation/Professionalism portion of their grade. To get credit, you must respond to the prompt by writing about a contract or clause you yourself have signed and by answering the above questions.

For those of you interested in reading about how arbitration clause disputes play out in real cases, here are two articles about recent cases involving disputes about whether individuals should get back their right to sue in court, or be forced into arbitration instead: