Nursing Homes And Arbitration Clauses: Destroying The Trial By Jury
Corporate-run nursing homes across the country have started requiring that patients (or their loved ones) agree to mandatory arbitration clauses before he or she can be admitted to a nursing home. This clause requires that you or anyone on your behalf must settle all disputes that you have with the nursing home or its staff through an arbitration process. Individuals unknowingly sign these clauses which ultimately results in their Constitutional right to jury trial being extinguished. Even worse, often times the arbitrators used are hired by the nursing home itself - so you can imagine where the arbitrators' loyalties lie.
However, help may be on the way in the form of the Arbitration Act of 2011. The proposed Arbitration Fairness Act would ban mandatory these types of arbitration clauses in the employment, consumer, and civil rights settings. If the Arbitration Act of 2011 is passed, nursing homes would no longer be allowed to make the acceptance of a mandatory arbitration clause a requirement to admission. The passage of this bill would be a huge step forward in protecting patients and their families of being taken advantage of in a time of need. To see the text of the Act click here: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s112-987
