Someone please put it to me in PLAIN english what the heck does that mean. Has anyone gotten anything in the mail about it? Thanks, mindy
It simply means that someone has a claim against you and they want a judgment. The court does not really want to spend time with "silly" small claims that might be worked out using an "arbitrator" who listens to the arguments in the same way a judge would and makes a determination that the debt is valid and the debtor should pay or the debtor does not owe the debt and should not have to pay. It's more of an informal setting than a courtroom and you have to agree to be bound by the rulings of the arbitrator. I can't tell you what you should or should not do because then I would be giving legal advice and I'm not an attorney, so I'm not qualified to give you legal advice. But I can tell you that if they came up to me wanting to arbritrate a debt, I would die fighting before I would even think about letting them get away with that for the simple reason that I personally have heard that one does not have all the safeguards in place that would be present in a normal courtroom hearing before a regular judge. I don't know that such is indeed true, but the way I see it is that if the other fellow wants something like that so bad then it must be a good deal for him or the court one and I'm not going to play the other man's game. So you do what you want, I'm just telling you what I would or would not do.
I got a notice from Citi about arbitration. If you read about halfway down the page, they say the arbitration clause does not pretain to small claims court as long as it stays in small claims.
Well, I'm not qualified to give you any more info than what I already have. Maybe some of the other people on this board can tell you more about the subject and how to deal with it.
Thanks, Bill and keepmine for the replies. Don't worry Bill, I don't take everything I read on the board as the gospel truth, just as other peoples opinions that they are nice enough to share, as it might prove helpful and informative to others. I appreciate any information that you provided. I have received to letters in the mail, one from citi and one from cap1 about arbitration and it is written in such technical terms that it is difficult to understand. Thanks, mindy
Well, I would tell you to send me copies but I can't see where that would do you or me either one much good since you can just go down to the court and talk to the judge's secretary and tell her you don't understand what this is all about and you want to know what it all means and what your options are. They have to explain it to you as far as I know. And if they tell you that you have to go to an attorney for your answers tell them you can't afford one and the court is going to have to appoint you one if they won't explain it to you. That won't get you anywhere as far as I know because that's only in criminal court where they have to appoint you one if you can't afford one, but what the heck. You are an uninformed consumer, aren't you??? How was you supposed to know that. I think they will explain it all to you with no argument. Go try it. You got nothing to lose.
Mindy, I don't have a Capitol 1 account so I don't know what you received from them. I do have Citi and here goes in a nutshell. If you keep there card, you must agree that you won't sue in Circuit Court. If you have a grievance, you use an arbitration service that they select. If you sue in small claims court, you do not have to arbitrate. If you agree, do nothing. If you wish to preserve your right to sue, you must inform them and, on the anniversary date of your account, they will cancel the card.
mindylou, if you don't mind reading you can find U.S. Arbitration Act Title 9 U.S.C. Sections 1-14 at www.lectlaw.com/files/adr05.htm also you can do a search for Arbitration laws in your particular state. Hopes this helps.
