Don’t believe them about arbitration agreements. They are not for your benefit. July 23, 2009

More and more in our personal injury practice, we are seeing arbitration agreements that have been signed by our clients at the request of businesses and nursing homes trying to avoid responsibility for their negligence.

The agreements provide that the resident gives up the right to file a lawsuit in court and ask for a jury trial. Instead if the nursing home abuses the resident the case goes to an arbitrator who may be less likely to be sympathetic to the resident.

We usually find that these complex agreements were misrepresented as for the benefit of our clients. Businesses sometimes tell our clients that the agreements are good for them because disputes can be resolved quickly. What they don’t say is that the nursing home’s lawyers have carefully drafted the agreements to get people to give up important and valuable legal rights.

For example, one nursing home chain asks its residents to sign an arbitration agreement that places a limit on the amount of money that can be awarded the resident in a lawsuit regardless of the severity of injury that the nursing home caused.   Florida courts have ruled that this limitation is against public policy, but the nursing home chain keeps trying to enforce it.

Therefore, we recommend that nursing home residents refuse to sign arbitration agreements. Be careful to review the nursing home admission agreement to make sure that it does not have an arbitration clause. If there is an arbitration clause, just draw lines through it so it is clear you do not intend to agree to it.

In some circumstances with the appropriate safeguards, arbitration can be fair to both sides. However we recommend that you make that type of decision only after consulting a lawyer experienced in nursing home litigation.  Any decision to arbitrate is best made in the context of a lawsuit with advice of an attorney.