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Article

22 Feb 2018

Author:
Emily Peck, Huffington Post (USA)

USA: 50 attorney generals ask Congress to end forced arbitration of sexual harassment cases and ensure that victims can access courts

"All 50 state AGs demand an end to 'culture of silence' surrounding sexual harassment", 13 Feb 2018

...[E]very single state attorney general―a majority of whom are Republican―signed a letter to congressional leaders demanding that sexual harassment victims get their day in court.  

The attorneys general want Congress to end the practice of forcing sexual harassment cases into mandatory arbitration, secret private courtrooms outside the public justice system. Companies favor arbitration because it’s cheaper...and even more appealing, arbitration allows corporations to keep embarrassing cases secret...

...The veil of secrecy that often surrounds harassment claims keeps victims isolated ― unaware that someone else has already gone through a similar experience and unable to fight together, the letter notes. It serves the public interest to bring these claims out into the open...

...The bipartisan push is a direct outgrowth of the Me Too movement, a seemingly unending wave of credible sexual misconduct allegations against some of the most powerful political and business leaders in the country. Arbitration agreements and confidentiality clauses helped protect many of these men, perhaps most notably Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, who has been accused by dozens of women for behavior...

...Former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson succeeded in getting around the arbitration clause in her employment contract with Fox News when she took the extraordinary step of suing the company’s former chairman, Roger Ailes, directly in court...