Robert and Valerie Perry

Robert and Valerie Perry

Robert is a gainfully employed coal miner who was out of work for a period of time​, and found himself relying on credit to get by. He received notice in 2010 that Citibank was suing him for $13,204.07 ​in credit card debt. After receiving several threatening letters from Citibank, Robert learned Citibank was in violation of state consumer protection laws. He found an attorney and filed a countersuit against Citibank for violating West Virginia law ​for its abusive debt collection efforts. Unbelievably, Citibank then forced Robert’s case into arbitration. This case dragged on for ​nearly 10 years and ultimately went all the way to West Virginia’s Supreme Court ​in which Robert and his wife Valerie ultimately lost their fight to escape forced arbitration – the court forced them into arbitration with Citibank.

Before this horrific ordeal, Robert and Valerie had no idea what forced arbitration was, and certainly had no idea they had given up their legal right to a fair trial in West Virginia. Robert and Valerie still don’t understand why the bank could sue them in court, but when they tried to bring a claim, they were blocked ​from doing so and forced into arbitration.

Marla Crawford

Marla Crawford, a 10 year veteran of Goldman Sachs and 30 year experienced attorney, became a confidante of a younger colleague who was sexually harassed by her superior. Crawford herself reported what she witnessed to human resources but was told to keep her mouth shut. She says the bank retained another firm to investigate the abuse, but pursuant to the direction of the bank’s leadership the investigation was phony, and prioritized secrecy. After the superior returned from a two-week absence, Crawford says he retaliated against her by giving her low performance scores, decreasing her bonus and refusing to work with her. Crawford’s court filings detail how she was ultimately pushed out of the bank despite her stellar career. She remains unable to hold Goldman Sachs publicly accountable for sexual harassment cover-up and retaliation because the bank uses forced arbitration as a condition for receiving annual bonus compensation.

Glenda Perez

Glenda and her husband Peter used to work for the same company. Glenda’s employer fired her after she reported racial discrimination, and then forced her into arbitration. The arbitrator sided with her employer and Glenda lost. Afterwards, Peter saw a photo with the “objective” arbitrator and the company’s lawyer together at a party.

Kevin Ziober

Kevin is a Navy Reservist. In 2013, he was called up to deploy to Afghanistan, and on his last day of work, his colleagues threw a going away party for him. Later that same day, HR fired him and told him his position would not be available when he returned from his deployment. Kevin tried to uphold his rights under a federal law called the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), which bans employers from firing workers who take time away from work to serve their country. However, Kevin was not aware that buried in the fine print of a document his employer required him to sign months earlier was a forced arbitration agreement, denying him his right to justice.

Lilly Silbert

Lilly had a monthly membership to Massage Envy when she was sexually assaulted by a massage therapist. Horrified by the experience, she tried to cancel her membership. She downloaded the Massage Envy app in order to do so, not knowing that by agreeing to the terms and conditions of the app, she was agreeing to forced arbitration for the physical harm she experienced months earlier. The company is using the forced arbitration clause in its app to try and block Lilly from holding it accountable. They are doing this to as many people as they can in order to hide how many sexual assaults actually occur.

Tia Holloman

Tia was training to be a manager at Circuit City when she endured two months of sexual harassment by her boss. She reported this to another manager who did nothing. There is video of the time Tia’s manager grabbed her hand and paraded her around the store as she tried to escape. He grabbed her hand so tightly that she had to go to the hospital. When she tied to hold the company accountable, she was forced into arbitration.

Kathy Greiner

Kathy was a DIRECTV customer for five years when her equipment stopped working. One customer service rep even suggested she climb on her roof and jiggle the satellite dish. Because of the poor service, she cancelled DIRECTV, who immediately charged her more than $200 for early termination, taking it directly from her bank without her permission. DIRECTV also tried to ruin her credit. She had no signed agreement, but they claimed they didn’t need one and could alter the terms of service at any time, including adding a forced arbitration clause. Kathy joined a lawsuit with over 700,000+ DIRECTV customers from California who were unlawfully charged fees and are trying to get their money back and stop these illegal business practices. DIRECTV has been trying to block this lawsuit since 2008 and is still attempting to force Kathy and all other California customers into individual arbitration.

Akeala Edwards

Akeala, a mother of four, was struggling to make ends meet and living paycheck to paycheck. She took out payday loans when she was in college to support her family. The lenders charged illegal interest rates, some of which were as high as 1000%. One loan even automatically renewed, which is also illegal. Akeala cannot hold these lenders accountable because of forced arbitration.

Kelli Stein

Kelli’s mother was severely abused in a nursing home. Her mother had a broken shoulder that wasn’t x-rayed for a week. Extreme lapses in care protocol led to her mother’s diminished physical and mental health. Kelli’s mother was a union leader and outspoken advocate for teachers’ rights who was always willing to fight injustice, but when Kelli tried to fight for her mom and hold the nursing home accountable, she was forced out of court and into arbitration.

Levi Bartos

Levi is a former Chipotle employee who was forced to work hours off the clock without pay. He was often auto-clocked out by a computer without his knowledge. His manager would also tell him to clock out and then force him to work an additional two to three hours without pay. Worried he’d lose his job if he tried to recover his lost wages, Levi kept quiet. One day, after working for more than 11 and a half hours without a break, he finally quit. Chipotle forced Levi and thousands of others like him, who were part of a single collective action lawsuit seeking their stolen wages, into individual arbitrations.

Richard Heggins

Richard also used to work for Chipotle. He opened one of their locations in New York. Chipotle would auto-clock him out at midnight, but he was forced to keep working without pay. When he complained, he was fired. However, he wasn’t able to fight back because of forced arbitration. Richard tried to join the nationwide court case to recover lost wages, but Chipotle is forcing him and thousands of others into individual arbitrations.