BA 3301 Legal Environment of BusinessdiscussionQ1Arbitration. Focus on
the downside.
Arbitration is secret.
If you file a suit you can get discovery…read what that is in the book. I can
find out how many other consumers have been screwed by this company before
me…can increase my damages…and a jury hears the problem and can award me a
judgement..emotion comes into play…Not with your arbitrator…
don’t get discovery in
arbitration…
If I am building a pool and want to check up on prior problems with this pool
company, none of his arbitrated disputes are on records…AND I cannot sue if I
am bound to arbitration…so it never becomes public…
Read one of your contracts
disucss the limitation of your rights you find…
You are under an arbitration
clause in many of your transactions. I always ask the class who is a party to
an arbitration agreement. I usually get one hand up.
If you own a cell phone, credit card, an electric bill, subscribe to
cable you probably are bound to an arbitration agreement. All big
companies dealing with the consumer have them in their contracts. It puts you
at a disadvantage.
It costs at least $2000 – $6000 or more to arbitrate.
Arbutrators tend to side with the people who use them most because they want to
get picked to arbitrate.

If you file a court case against a company or they against you there is a
public record of the dispute..Q2My kids favorite
subject—Medicinal Marijuana.
When we hear people argue for
State’s rights it is usually by conservatives demanding the Supreme Court stay
out of their abortion laws, gun laws, voting laws, immigration laws, health
insurance laws….but there is another big issue.
This is not about marijuana this is about
the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. What about the
Federal Government wanting to override state law.
Federal Law Rules but Marijuana is legal in one form or
another in 21 states and DC …some conservative states….(see slide 3)..
Here I thought Obama was going to leave the state
alone and I read the justice department has sent out warning to the States
where Marijuana is legal for medical purposes. I wonder if the Federal
government is going to send in enough DEA agents to enforce the law? Of course
not, they want the states to do it for them… kind of like immigration…
Do we need uniform laws throughout the states for
abortion/guns/immigration/voting/divorce/marriage/marijuana???Q3.The Supreme Court is the Court of Last
resource for many people and most people do not have a hope of getting
there. Only 100 of thousands of case which apply get a hearing.
Read
the attached article about an astonishing decision from the court and comment
on it…Is it unconstitutional to execute an innocent man? And…do
Justice Antonin Scalia, and Justice Clarence Thomas have brains or is it a
heart they are lacking??
Interesting
tidbit: Clarence Thomas has not during oral arguments before the supreme
Court asked a question in 6 years.

This case is actually
complete and the Defendant never came up with solid evidence of his
innocence Witnesses did not cooperate and he ended up being executed onSeptember 21, 2011. We will neevr know
if he was guilty or innocent…But does it matter after he had what Clarence
Thomas considered to be a fair