justice

—>After yesterday's news that Comcast was considering getting in on the already-under-antitrust-scrutiny merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation, the original article has been updated to be slightly less bad.  More »

—>Yesterday, the Senate adopted an amendment that will prevent federal funding from going to any contractor that requires its employees to use mandatory binding arbitration, instead of court, for sexual assault and civil rights claims against the company.  More »

—>A woman who was allegedly raped while working for Halliburton/Kellogg Brown & Root in Iraq will have her civil claims heard in court, not by a company-selected arbitrator, thanks to a ruling by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.  More »

—>Last month, the Minnesota Attorney General brought an oppressive arbitration regime to its knees. Nation Arbitration Forum handled over 200,000 arbitrations per year. But many of those cases will end up in the 50 states' district courts, where consumers may fare no better.  More »

—>The war on spam is just as doomed as the war on drugs, but the FBI has won a battle, bringing down a bulk commercial e-mail ring that pimped Chinese penny stocks into unwilling inboxes. They also developed bot network that helped spam avoid detection.  More »

—>Attention mean commenters: watch what you say or the Justice Department will hunt you down. Seriously! The U.S. Attorney in Nevada subpoenaed the Las Vegas Review-Journal to reveal the identities of two anonymous commenters whose statements could be read as mildly threatening to jurors involved in a tax case, if you've never read internet comments before.  More »

—>The perils of forced arbitration and the need for the Arbitration Fairness Act were recently featured on an NPR piece. The story discusses the case of Jamie Leigh Jones, the former Halliburton employee who was gang raped in Iraq by her coworkers, then was sent to arbitration when she tried to sue her employer.  More »

—>We've devoted a fair amount of time to trying to find ways to beat companies like Webloyalty, which market themselves via post-transaction popups on legit Web sites like Fandango and Orbitz, and suck you in with promises of savings, savings, savings, but really just deliver hard-to-cancel recurring monthly charges. The best solution we've found: Block pop-ups, boycott merchants that work with these losers, and immediately close any window that starts talking to us about all the great deals we're about to get. Senator John D. Rockefeller IV has another idea, and it's one that we like: Investigate the companies and make them hand over the goods on their business practices.  More »

—>Today's "Toothpaste For Dinner" Web comic features a visit from the Stupid Shipping Gang. A bigger version of the comic, and more adventures of the Stupid Shipping Gang, inside.  More »

—>Protip for telemarkers: If you're going to engage in random robodialing to unlisted cell phones, pray very very hard that you do not dial the attorney general of a state in which you plan to continue doing business.  More »

The House Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law is currently holding a hearing on forced arbitration and credit cards, appropriately titled "Federal Arbitration Act: Is the Credit Card Industry Using It To Quash Legal Claims?" Our friends at Public Citizen will be testifying. You can view (or at least listen to) the Real Player stream here.  More »

—>Meet Michelle. We met Michelle at Arbitration Fairness Day and she told us about being forced into arbitration when she tried to get her poorly constructed home repaired. Now she'd like to share her story with you.  More »