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[Music]
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watch out snake watch out snickers
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my grisham books
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some of them anyway
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when was it this was written uh two
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years ago john uh decided to write the
00:00:20
appeal
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he talked to me about it because he
00:00:23
wanted me to
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help him get the get the details right
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in the book he likes the books to be
00:00:29
accurate it's about it's interesting
00:00:30
because it's about uh it sort of tracks
00:00:32
what i went through um it's about a
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mississippi supreme court justice
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running for re-election and
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being
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attacked by these out-of-state big
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business interest groups that are coming
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in trying to defeat the incumbent
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supreme court justice so that they can
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get their corporate interests on the
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you know on the court
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so
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yeah
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as the legislature would try to affect
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tort reform if they did get into law
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then it came down to the courts to
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decide whether that law was
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constitutional
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and there started to be decisions around
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the country that said that these laws
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were not constitutional they went too
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far
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so then the businesses said well we
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can't
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pass those laws what we can do is to try
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and have judges who decide these cases
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be really conservative
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business oriented judges karl rove
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developed this plan and worked with the
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chamber of commerce to influence the
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outcome of key judicial races around the
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country they put in place a pretty
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aggressive campaign ranking which states
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are most important for them to be in and
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putting tens of millions of dollars a
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year into these elections that often had
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tiny amounts of money
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i started getting calls from carl in the
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middle to late 1980s as he began his
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work representing at the beginning state
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supreme court candidates in texas
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rove was able to put together a
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franchise basically to elect republicans
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who he was representing with a guarantee
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that they would have well financed races
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and business interests got supreme court
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judges who were going to rule their way
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on business cases and on tort cases by
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the time you reach the 1990s this corps
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of conservative republican tort minded
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judges were ruling overwhelmingly for
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some of the largest corporate interests
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in texas
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[Music]
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it's a model that they used and they
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exported to other states it's a good
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payoff
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it's a good payoff you put money in the
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judicial race uh you spend a hundred
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thousand dollars to help uh challenge a
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judicial candidate it can have literally
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a million dollar impact on your company
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and it seems that that's happening more
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and more throughout the country that
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our state supreme courts are reversing
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civil juries in this country at an
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unprecedented level
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after seeing the gifts of millions of
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dollars
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last week the supreme court reversed a
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century of law
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that i believe will open the floodgates
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for special interests
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including foreign corporations
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to spend without limit in our elections
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if you get five people in our state we
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have nine so the majority is five you
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get five judges that have that
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persuasion
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to be always with
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the doctors or be always with
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corporations
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you have court reform
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and that is more deadly
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than tort reform ever thought about
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being that's what this car rove the
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chamber is about and they came into
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these southern states
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and mississippi was a good state to take
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on because it's a small state not much
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money
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and the u.s chamber putting candidates
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that were friendly towards them and they
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were able to elect all of them except
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for one and that was all over diaz's
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election
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the appeal was a book i published it's a
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novel it's completely fiction and it's
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completely true
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it's a story of the uh
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purchasing of a supreme court seat in
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mississippi
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i felt like i kind of lived through it
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with oliver you know no one because he
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was my friend nobody had gone through
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[Music]
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i was born and raised in biloxi
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mississippi
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lived there all of my life and
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then went to law school and after law
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school came back home and started
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practicing law there and
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in 1987 it was elected to the
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mississippi house of representatives
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and and started a career in politics at
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that point i was his campaign manager
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he had these interest groups that were
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interested in electing judges that they
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deemed to be pro-business i was not
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deemed to be pro-business and the u.s
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chamber mounted a very very large and
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expensive campaign against me
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in 2000. diaz even voted to overturn a
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cocaine conviction because evidence of a
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prior cocaine sale was allowed oliver
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diaz very bad judgment the negative ads
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are still running and that that part has
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not changed the the ads are still on the
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television it's a terrible situation it
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is demeaning to the office it is
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improper that should not have happened
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i've told judge diaz that i've done all
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i can do to get those stopped i don't
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like it my opponent who was supported by
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the u.s chamber of commerce he had
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probably a million dollars spent on his
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behalf which was not even it was more
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than a million dollars spent on his
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behalf but it wasn't in his name and he
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didn't report that on his campaign
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finance reports you know people think oh
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the u.s chamber of commerce they think
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of it representing small chambers on a
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national scale that really isn't what
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the us chamber of commerce is so what's
00:06:15
the us chamber of commerce um i'm not
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really sure
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so i'm dealing with the government
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it was
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my understanding that it was a
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government agency but i'm not sure of
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that probably they are getting engaged
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in
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managing uh
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something
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trade do they engage in managing trade
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throughout the united states
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i'd go with that
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[Music]
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the u.s chamber of commerce became a
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very very important player in the tour
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reform movement and they have now been
00:07:10
shown to be funneling money into
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judicial campaigns here's here's the way
00:07:14
the campaigns happen okay
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you have
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your doctors hospitals manufacturers
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insurance companies you got all those
00:07:23
folks kind of quarterbacked by the
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chamber of commerce that's where the
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money is there's nobody on the other
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side except for trial lawyers because
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the trial lawyers know the law and they
00:07:31
know what's going to happen
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if these judges are elected we were
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playing by a certain set of rules there
00:07:37
were campaign finance laws that you had
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to know
00:07:41
where the money was coming from and
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there were limits on some of the amounts
00:07:44
of money by who gave it the trial
00:07:46
lawyers are limited as to how much money
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they can put in
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if you give more than five thousand
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dollars a judge can't sit on your case
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whereas if the money comes from the
00:07:56
chamber all that money was packaged into
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a large group and there's no way that
00:08:00
you can see who were the contributors
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the chamber puts in millions of dollars
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into state races through some kind of a
00:08:06
front group you know citizens for strong
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ohio or partnership for ohio groups that
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sound like they are citizens groups but
00:08:14
in fact are really business groups
00:08:16
hiding behind a false veneer we're doing
00:08:18
much much better in the courts and in
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the election of judges to the state
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supreme courts
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we're in those races we'll spend 19
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million dollars
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in the election of those judges and
00:08:30
state attorneys general in this next
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election they spent so much money
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against us they would run almost every
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15 to 20 minutes on tv on our local
00:08:46
station so we got to where we just
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didn't have the tvs on and all of a
00:08:49
sudden one morning we didn't want the
00:08:50
kids to see these horrible ads some of
00:08:53
the ads actually had big money bags
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being thrown up on a bench that he was
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bought and paid for his generous friends
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diaz's campaign took over one hundred
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thousand dollars from personal injury
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lawyers and so one morning we hear you
00:09:05
know just woohoo and our daughter is
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just like cheering downstairs and we
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come down and um she's like we're rich
00:09:12
or rich and she'd seen the ad with the
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big bags of money you know on the bench
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and her daddy's name the game plan was
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to pick out a justice try to make that
00:09:22
justice look soft on crime
00:09:25
take snippets from decisions that the
00:09:27
justice had made manipulate those
00:09:30
decisions to make them seem absolutely
00:09:32
outrageous and ridiculous
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and
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spend a lot of money
00:09:37
to get that message out to the voters
00:09:39
the amount of money that's spent on
00:09:41
television in a political campaign has
00:09:44
an enormous effect on the outcome and in
00:09:46
fact in 2000 the statistics showed that
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the side that spent the most money won
00:09:52
about 90 percent of the time
00:10:01
we had two weeks until we had to run
00:10:03
again for a runoff and we find out that
00:10:06
the u.s chamber had literally almost
00:10:08
purchased all of the available air time
00:10:11
that there was available from jackson to
00:10:14
biloxi mississippi what we had to do at
00:10:16
the time was actually take out loans to
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finance the campaign
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and if you're familiar with banking at
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all
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they generally don't
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like to loan money to folks who may lose
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an election so you have to have somebody
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with money that co-signs on your behalf
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and my very good friend paul miner was
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willing to step up and sign a loan at
00:10:37
the bank to allow us to compete with the
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u.s chamber's ads that were running at
00:10:41
the time keith starrett's special
00:10:43
interest group from washington dc
00:10:44
recently started attacking me and
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distorting my record i refuse to be
00:10:48
negative but i must defend my record
00:10:50
i still don't know how we did it to this
00:10:52
very day but we actually won that
00:10:54
election
00:10:56
i really honestly thought when we won
00:10:58
and celebrated that election we had
00:11:00
thought that was a good day and it
00:11:02
turned out to be probably
00:11:04
one of the worst days of our life the
00:11:06
election was
00:11:09
federal prosecutors decided to
00:11:12
investigate me and used
00:11:15
the loans that paul minor had co-signed
00:11:17
at the bank and called that a bribe and
00:11:20
said that he bribed me as a judge but
00:11:22
what's really interesting about that
00:11:24
is i never voted for a single case
00:11:28
in which paul minor or his law firm or
00:11:30
anybody he was associated with had
00:11:33
brought before the supreme court because
00:11:34
of our friendship
00:11:36
and then that summer oliver was indicted
00:11:40
and it just kind of started spiraling
00:11:41
downhill from there
00:11:43
um
00:11:44
i almost kind of didn't believe oliver i
00:11:47
said there has to be something here
00:11:49
you're not telling me the truth they
00:11:50
wouldn't bring these charges against us
00:11:53
and do this all of these counts are
00:11:55
facing a hundred and some years in the
00:11:57
federal penitentiary we have millions of
00:11:59
dollars millions of dollars in fines we
00:12:01
have two small children
00:12:02
[Music]
00:12:04
oliver diaz says the charges against tim
00:12:06
are groundless because he withdrew from
00:12:08
all cases involving paul minor diaz is
00:12:10
on leave from the supreme court until
00:12:12
the case is resolved the decision to
00:12:15
prosecute justice diaz may have been
00:12:17
motivated by tort reform politics it may
00:12:21
have been motivated by
00:12:23
an effort to remove justice diaz from
00:12:26
the supreme court where he often voted
00:12:28
for ordinary citizens and against
00:12:30
corporations
00:12:31
but it certainly was not a prosecution
00:12:35
that was based on the evidence because
00:12:37
the evidence did not support it do you
00:12:40
think that oliver was prosecuted for
00:12:42
political reasons
00:12:44
for sure
00:12:45
i don't think there's any doubt about
00:12:46
that
00:12:47
we thought we were just targeted and
00:12:49
this was just us and this political
00:12:51
prosecution was just us
00:12:52
we have later found out that this
00:12:54
happened all over the country and those
00:12:56
other judges were that won or were
00:12:58
successful were also targeted
00:13:02
after a three-month trial i was
00:13:05
completely acquitted of all charges a
00:13:07
jury returned not guilty verdicts on
00:13:09
everything
00:13:10
but
00:13:12
three days after my trial i was
00:13:14
reindicted
00:13:16
on tax evasion charges so i had to go
00:13:19
through another federal trial after that
00:13:21
first three-month trial and had a
00:13:23
week-long trial this time on tax charges
00:13:26
and after a 15-minute deliberation time
00:13:29
by the jury i was fully acquitted a
00:13:31
second time
00:13:32
and i was finally cleared to return to
00:13:34
the bench but not after
00:13:36
i had been removed from the bench for
00:13:38
almost three years
00:13:41
so what they weren't able to do through
00:13:43
an election they were able to do with a
00:13:45
federal prosecution federal
00:13:47
investigation
00:13:49
to keep me off the bench
00:13:51
to ruin my reputation to make it that
00:13:55
i probably wouldn't be able to be
00:13:57
elected again to the mississippi supreme
00:13:59
court some other people were elected who
00:14:02
were considered to be much more business
00:14:03
friendly
00:14:04
uh
00:14:05
justices than had served on the court in
00:14:07
the years past and it really really did
00:14:09
alter things in mississippi after the
00:14:12
the court swung
00:14:13
they went like two years without
00:14:15
upholding a plaintiff verdict
00:14:17
you know you might be able to win with
00:14:19
the jury but you have no hope of having
00:14:21
that verdict sustained by the courts
00:14:25
[Music]
00:14:31
[Laughter]
00:14:36
i think sort of the
00:14:37
taint of these charges and sort of the
00:14:40
residue of all of that
00:14:42
and the fact that some people in the
00:14:43
public simply assumed he was guilty
00:14:45
because he was charged of it causing him
00:14:47
to be defeated for re-election also um i
00:14:50
was not able to to raise the funds
00:14:52
to to compete
00:14:54
i raised about a quarter of the amount
00:14:56
that i'd raised in my first election if
00:14:58
two or three million dollars is being
00:15:00
spent or 10 million dollars is being
00:15:02
spent
00:15:03
this way it's going now in 10 years from
00:15:05
now they'll be spending 100 million
00:15:06
dollars on judicial elections and
00:15:09
it's not really a good way to have the
00:15:12
system work
00:15:15
and there's many people in the business
00:15:16
community who don't agree with me on
00:15:17
that
00:15:21
[Music]
00:15:44
can you tell us why you're here today at
00:15:46
this reform summit we're here to receive
00:15:48
uh the
00:15:50
leadership achievement award oh for what
00:15:52
we're passing a 208 page civil justice
00:15:55
reform law in oklahoma
00:15:57
that is going to take the bullseye off
00:15:59
the back of business in our state what
00:16:01
does that mean exactly it means that
00:16:03
we're protecting our businesses from
00:16:04
frivolous lawsuits and do you think
00:16:06
there are a lot of frivolous lawsuits
00:16:07
there are and we think that there's a
00:16:08
definite cost to
00:16:10
the medical profession and the cost of
00:16:12
doing business where we have to protect
00:16:14
that companies that are now doing
00:16:16
business in our country from that kind
00:16:18
of invasiveness and so who brings these
00:16:21
frivolous lawsuits all kinds of people
00:16:22
people that are jackpot justice oriented
00:16:25
do you think tort reform is a good thing
00:16:26
for the american public without a doubt
00:16:28
why why is that
00:16:29
there's
00:16:30
just an incredible amount of
00:16:32
frivolous lawsuits
00:16:34
it directly impacts
00:16:36
everything from
00:16:38
healthcare to
00:16:40
um
00:16:41
you know
00:16:42
prices in stores
00:16:44
small businesses it's extremely
00:16:46
important and where do you work or what
00:16:48
do you do
00:16:49
i am uh i'm a lawyer okay and with a law
00:16:52
firm or in-house
00:16:54
for what kind of company or advisor
00:16:57
i think we've just gone to for her we
00:16:58
just have too much litigation and so who
00:17:01
who benefits from having less litigation
00:17:03
everybody except except the trial
00:17:05
lawyers and how do you do you want to
00:17:07
like eliminate people's rights to go to
00:17:09
the court system i want to give people
00:17:11
my own preference would be to give
00:17:12
people rights to sign contracts when
00:17:15
they buy products and so forth so the
00:17:17
contracts would determine what rights
00:17:19
they had are these things like the
00:17:21
arbitration clauses that are in
00:17:22
contracts like the mandatory arbitration
00:17:24
yeah those are those are useful useful
00:17:26
causes
00:17:27
sometimes um litigation is harmful to
00:17:30
all of us and they're better means to
00:17:32
resolve disputes than through the courts
00:17:34
you mentioned a few of them already
00:17:36
arbitration is a very good one and there
00:17:38
are lots of others but i hope you'll
00:17:40
excuse me no problem thank you so much i
00:17:42
appreciate it
00:17:44
[Music]
00:17:57
did she get any on her head yes
00:18:01
that doesn't go on your head baby girl
00:18:04
thank you silly
00:18:06
you thirsty
00:18:08
you want drink honey
00:18:10
oh yeah
00:18:13
[Music]
00:18:27
i had never heard of a mandatory
00:18:29
arbitration clause before i had signed
00:18:32
my employment contract with halliburton
00:18:35
i worked for halliburton in houston
00:18:37
and
00:18:39
i wanted to help operation iraqi freedom
00:18:42
my mom was very sick at home so i needed
00:18:44
to help support her
00:18:46
they say it's more likely that you get
00:18:48
in a car wreck than something happening
00:18:50
to you in iraq
00:18:52
so as a 19 year old
00:18:54
girl
00:18:54
you believe your elders and you think
00:18:57
that that's probably true
00:18:59
so
00:19:01
four years ago at the age of 19 ms jamie
00:19:04
lee jones
00:19:05
signed a contract to become an employee
00:19:08
of kbr then a halliburton subsidiary
00:19:12
that contract contained a clause which
00:19:14
required her to arbitrate any future
00:19:17
dispute against her
00:19:19
employer
00:19:20
this means it forced her to give up her
00:19:23
right to seek redress
00:19:24
in court if she was wronged mandatory
00:19:28
arbitration
00:19:30
is uh somebody has to be involved in the
00:19:33
case isn't it or something because
00:19:34
arbitration is how the case is it has
00:19:37
something to do with case files have you
00:19:39
ever yeah
00:19:40
i've heard the two words used separately
00:19:42
that's right
00:19:43
businesses use a number of devices to
00:19:45
keep the public out of the courts one of
00:19:47
the devices they've used is they've
00:19:49
written clauses into contracts that say
00:19:52
that you cannot go to court
00:19:54
you can only go to arbitration what we
00:19:56
started to see was again and again our
00:19:59
clients had been forced to sign in fine
00:20:02
print of contracts these mandatory
00:20:05
arbitration or forced arbitration
00:20:06
clauses and none of our clients knew
00:20:09
that those provisions were there and
00:20:10
then it was only after we got hold of
00:20:12
their documents that we would say to
00:20:13
them hey did you know you supposedly
00:20:16
agreed that you are not allowed to sue
00:20:18
the company do you know that you agreed
00:20:20
that instead of going to a jury that you
00:20:22
have to go to a private arbitrator who's
00:20:25
with the company that's picked by the
00:20:27
company who cheated you and when you ask
00:20:29
people
00:20:30
about binding arbitration and would you
00:20:32
knowingly sign away your rights they say
00:20:35
well of course not and then you ask them
00:20:36
well do you have a cell phone do you
00:20:38
have a gem membership do you did you
00:20:40
know do you have a credit card do you
00:20:41
know whether you've ever agreed to
00:20:43
mandatory arbitration in any of your
00:20:46
contracts um i don't believe i ever have
00:20:49
no do you own a credit could you have a
00:20:50
credit card well maybe i have
00:20:53
when you first sign a contract with a
00:20:54
cell phone company or a credit card
00:20:56
company or whatnot there won't be any
00:20:58
reference or any mention of the
00:21:00
arbitration clause but then at some
00:21:01
point the company decides to add it so
00:21:03
what they do is they send out an
00:21:05
incredibly tiny print a little booklet
00:21:08
that they stick in with the bill and
00:21:10
what almost everybody does is you look
00:21:13
at the bill and you throw everything
00:21:14
else away but that's where they send in
00:21:17
the arbitration clause and then what
00:21:18
they say is if you ever use your phone
00:21:20
again or you ever use your credit card
00:21:22
again that you've supposedly agreed to
00:21:25
mandatory arbitration
00:21:27
what's happened in america is that
00:21:29
entire industries have all adopted
00:21:31
mandatory arbitration clauses you'll see
00:21:33
them in credit card agreements checking
00:21:35
account agreements lending agreements
00:21:37
cell phone contracts virtually anything
00:21:39
that's bought over the internet
00:21:41
computers books records virtually all
00:21:44
nursing homes nearly every contract to
00:21:45
buy a new car health clubs tanning
00:21:48
salons i have a friend who took her cat
00:21:50
in to be boarded while she went on
00:21:52
vacation and the kennel made her sign a
00:21:54
mandatory arbitration clause that they
00:21:56
killed her cat or did something horrible
00:21:57
to it that she couldn't go to court you
00:21:59
have no bargaining power you as a
00:22:02
consumer or a worker are forced into
00:22:04
these things
00:22:05
and you really never had a choice in the
00:22:07
matter
00:22:08
mandatory arbitration is fast becoming
00:22:10
the rule rather than the exception
00:22:13
the practice of forcing employees to use
00:22:15
arbitration
00:22:16
has been on the rise there are several
00:22:18
surveys that show that more than a third
00:22:19
of the working people in america are
00:22:22
bound to
00:22:23
forced arbitration clauses in fact far
00:22:26
more american workers are governed by
00:22:29
mandatory forced arbitration clauses
00:22:31
that are members of unions in in modern
00:22:33
america today
00:22:37
i worked for halliburton in houston for
00:22:39
a little bit over a year before i
00:22:41
decided to go to iraq
00:22:43
when i was in iraq halliburton and kbr
00:22:46
were the same company
00:22:49
those that go over to iraq get promoted
00:22:52
when they come home also
00:22:54
i mean my goal is to just work there
00:22:56
forever
00:22:57
i was content there until
00:23:00
everything happened
00:23:02
i was told that i would be housed in
00:23:06
a little trailer house with one female
00:23:08
on one side another on one side and then
00:23:11
a bathroom shared in the middle
00:23:13
and
00:23:14
when i got there i was perplexed because
00:23:16
i was put in a predominantly all-male
00:23:18
barrack i didn't see any females there i
00:23:21
emailed some of the managers that i knew
00:23:24
from houston and i told them i was
00:23:26
concerned that i wanted you know to be
00:23:28
moved into the living quarters that i
00:23:30
was promised
00:23:32
and
00:23:33
one guy emailed me back and just said oh
00:23:35
you'll get over it men had their doors
00:23:37
open and some were in boxers and they
00:23:40
were cat calling
00:23:42
[Music]
00:23:48
when i woke up i was severely beaten my
00:23:52
chest was disfigured i was bleeding
00:23:54
between my legs i was naked i washed my
00:23:56
hands and then i saw the bruises on my
00:23:59
wrist and i'm starting to put together
00:24:00
that something major happened to my body
00:24:03
and then i go back up the stairs down
00:24:05
the hall and i looked in my room and
00:24:07
there was a man in the bottom bunk
00:24:10
and i don't remember if he was clothed
00:24:12
or anything i was so like shocked that
00:24:16
part bits and pieces of it are gone from
00:24:18
me
00:24:19
it was just
00:24:21
it was the worst moment in my entire
00:24:23
life to actually
00:24:25
see a man brazen enough to still be
00:24:27
there in the room after raping
00:24:29
me
00:24:31
and it was really hard and i know now
00:24:33
that the reason why he was still in the
00:24:35
room was because
00:24:37
he would be able to get away with it
00:24:40
i went to seek
00:24:42
medical help
00:24:43
and
00:24:44
at the army doctor she said that i had
00:24:46
been
00:24:49
penetrated both vaginally and anally and
00:24:52
that
00:24:53
the
00:24:54
tears down there were significant
00:24:57
[Music]
00:25:07
you've heard a lot about halliburton
00:25:09
lately criticism is okay we can take it
00:25:12
criticism is not failure our employees
00:25:15
are doing a great job we're feeding the
00:25:18
soldiers we're rebuilding iraq will
00:25:20
things go wrong sure they will it's a
00:25:22
war zone but when they do we'll fix it
00:25:26
we always have so then two kpr security
00:25:29
officers took me to a it's
00:25:33
been called a lot of things shipping
00:25:34
container trailer
00:25:36
essentially i was in prison there was
00:25:39
two armed guards outside of my door
00:25:42
i was begging and pleading through the
00:25:44
door to
00:25:45
you know let me get out of there and
00:25:47
finally one of the guards out of
00:25:48
sympathy let me use this phone i called
00:25:51
my father who contacted congressman ted
00:25:53
poe well it was almost unbelievable here
00:25:56
she is a young
00:25:58
19 year old uh
00:26:00
female
00:26:01
and according to her dad
00:26:03
she had
00:26:05
she was locked up in one of these
00:26:06
shipping crates
00:26:08
so the first thing that i thought should
00:26:10
happen is get her out of that situation
00:26:13
you know
00:26:14
send the troops over to rescue her so to
00:26:16
speak and
00:26:17
the state department i thought did a
00:26:18
pretty good job after i was rescued by
00:26:22
federal agents they formed a meeting
00:26:24
with kpr management and management told
00:26:27
me that i had two options one i could
00:26:30
continue working there or two i could go
00:26:33
home and be terminated
00:26:35
i tried to pursue my criminal case and
00:26:38
it didn't work and then i tried to file
00:26:41
a civil suit and that didn't work out
00:26:44
because of the arbitration clause in my
00:26:45
employment contract
00:26:56
no one would conceive that this would
00:26:58
happen to them first of all
00:27:00
and secondly no one would conceive that
00:27:02
this would be oh well then the company
00:27:04
that sent you over there and put you in
00:27:06
this position
00:27:08
uh where you were raped
00:27:11
is also you're just gonna have to
00:27:12
arbitrate with us secretly i mean i
00:27:15
don't think anyone could possibly
00:27:16
conceive that that would happen well
00:27:18
whenever you take a case out of the
00:27:20
court system you're immediately put into
00:27:22
a biased type of forum arbitration
00:27:25
happens to be extremely biased most
00:27:27
arbitrations take place in secret you
00:27:30
have a private judge so if you have a
00:27:32
credit card agreement the credit card
00:27:34
company picks who the arbitration
00:27:36
company is going to be and then the
00:27:37
arbitration company picks an individual
00:27:40
arbitrator to hear your case the
00:27:41
arbitrator wants repeat business
00:27:44
and they only deal with you once but
00:27:46
they deal with the bank of america
00:27:48
or general motors or whoever it is the
00:27:50
businesses they deal with them day in
00:27:53
and day out and so they're going to tilt
00:27:55
their decisions
00:27:56
toward the businesses
00:27:58
there have been a bunch of examples
00:28:00
where if the arbitrator ruled in favor
00:28:02
of a consumer or ruled in favor of
00:28:04
somebody who was an employee that they
00:28:06
were blackballed and they never got to
00:28:08
work again as an arbitrator so they set
00:28:11
up systems that are essentially rigged
00:28:13
against the consumers many studies show
00:28:16
that consumers come out winning these
00:28:18
cases maybe less than 10 percent of the
00:28:21
time
00:28:22
they're almost always won by the bank or
00:28:24
the credit card company it's impossible
00:28:26
to find out what the reason is for an
00:28:28
arbitrator ruling for one side or
00:28:30
another they just say this side wins
00:28:32
this side loses and that's it and
00:28:34
there's no right to appeal so i have to
00:28:36
take the final judgment of one guy who's
00:28:38
been picked by my credit card company to
00:28:40
tell me uh that i'm gonna end up having
00:28:43
to pay
00:28:44
i'm not okay with that yeah i'm not okay
00:28:46
with that no huh that's actually
00:28:47
upsetting transparency is a must in the
00:28:50
judicial process so
00:28:52
um if there's no oversight in that
00:28:54
regard i'd be pretty i'd be pretty
00:28:55
worried attilan unless congress takes
00:28:58
action with regard to restricting the
00:29:00
use of these binding arbitration clauses
00:29:02
we're all going to be stuck with these
00:29:04
clauses senator al franken proposing the
00:29:07
pentagon shouldn't hire contractors that
00:29:10
make their employees agree in advance
00:29:12
not to sue
00:29:13
if they're raped by co-workers i just
00:29:16
started the jamie lee foundation and
00:29:18
i've been trying to
00:29:20
bring awareness to the situation to help
00:29:22
others through my foundation so behind
00:29:23
the scenes up to this point you've been
00:29:25
trying to pursue
00:29:26
every legal avenue oh yeah
00:29:30
i went public because i wanted to bring
00:29:32
awareness to situations that there was a
00:29:34
loophole in our justice system that
00:29:36
needed to be fixed very quickly
00:29:40
if i could just you know get this out
00:29:42
there what happened to me that maybe you
00:29:45
know people would change the law somehow
00:29:48
also change
00:29:50
[Music]
00:30:01
[Laughter]
00:30:01
[Music]
00:30:05
very nice to meet you nice to meet you
00:30:07
you have an incredibly
00:30:09
courageous daughter and
00:30:11
also with a tremendous amount of
00:30:13
persistence
00:30:16
so way to go thank you
00:30:30
and you're testifying tomorrow yes sir
00:30:32
uh-huh
00:30:34
i've specified in front of congress a
00:30:35
few times
00:30:37
is it judiciary committee tomorrow
00:30:39
uh judiciary yeah that's me
00:30:45
[Music]
00:30:46
i turned to the civil court system for
00:30:48
justice when the criminal justice system
00:30:51
was slow to respond
00:30:52
when my lawyers filed the suit
00:30:55
they were met with halliburton's
00:30:56
response that all of my claims were to
00:30:59
be decided in arbitration because i had
00:31:01
signed away my right to a trial by jury
00:31:04
at such an early age i had no choice to
00:31:06
sign this contract because i needed this
00:31:09
job i had no idea that the clause was
00:31:11
part of the contract what the cause
00:31:13
actually meant or that i'd eventually
00:31:15
end up in this horrible situation
00:31:17
the problem of forcing claims like mine
00:31:19
into secret system a binding arbitration
00:31:22
goes well beyond me
00:31:24
even when victims pursue their claims in
00:31:26
arbitration the information is sealed
00:31:29
and kept confidential
00:31:30
the system of arbitration keeps this
00:31:32
evidence from ever coming to public
00:31:34
light and allows companies like
00:31:36
halliburton to continue to allow the
00:31:38
abuse of their employees without
00:31:39
repercussion or public scrutiny
00:31:42
seminal question is should employers and
00:31:44
employees be able to engage in mediation
00:31:46
and mandatory binding arbitration of
00:31:48
employment disputes as alternatives to
00:31:50
litigation
00:31:52
the seminal answer is
00:31:54
absolutely
00:31:55
adr and employment programs are
00:31:57
flourishing
00:31:58
when implemented appropriately they're
00:31:59
decisively an employee's best interest
00:32:02
uh it is a popular concept for those
00:32:04
employers who have adopted and adopted
00:32:06
it appropriately
00:32:07
it provides for more effective
00:32:08
communication in your comments sure
00:32:11
did you also tell how arbitration
00:32:14
would be helpful to somebody like miss
00:32:16
jones when the
00:32:18
when they uh her employer halliburton
00:32:21
have been affected that
00:32:22
rape and sexual uh assault has just been
00:32:25
considered part of the job
00:32:28
what we have in this situation i'm not
00:32:30
here representing
00:32:32
anyone involved in that case i'm not
00:32:34
involved in that case
00:32:36
you know ms jones has had her day in
00:32:38
court and maybe more than she'd want it
00:32:41
goes on and on and on i understand that
00:32:43
what we're talking about is the concept
00:32:45
of adr and dispute resolution programs
00:32:48
overall senator franken
00:32:51
thank you mr chairman and thank you for
00:32:53
calling
00:32:54
this hearing uh mr dibernardo
00:32:58
you said that the net result of the use
00:33:00
of arbit of arbitration
00:33:04
is a better workplaces
00:33:07
correct
00:33:08
better workplaces
00:33:11
correct she was housed with 400 men
00:33:16
she
00:33:18
told
00:33:19
kbr twice that she was being sexually
00:33:21
harassed
00:33:23
she was drugged
00:33:26
by men
00:33:28
that
00:33:29
the kbr employment people knew did this
00:33:31
kind of thing
00:33:33
she was raped gang raped she had to have
00:33:36
reconstructive surgery sir
00:33:41
they had this arbit this arbitration
00:33:47
now if that created a better workplace
00:33:51
and then she was locked in a shipping
00:33:53
container
00:33:55
with an armed guard
00:33:57
now my question to you is if that's a
00:33:59
better workplace
00:34:02
what was the workplace like before
00:34:07
that's a rhetorical question i'm not
00:34:09
really asking that question
00:34:11
they had
00:34:13
binding arbitration at kbr
00:34:16
and because of that
00:34:18
and they asserted it on cases like this
00:34:22
and ms jones in your foundation you've
00:34:25
heard from other women who are raped is
00:34:27
that not true yes sir i have
00:34:30
and i and women who under arbitration
00:34:36
yes sir
00:34:37
we're told to keep silent is that right
00:34:39
exactly
00:34:41
and because of that silence you didn't
00:34:43
know about anything like this did you
00:34:45
exactly it didn't know
00:34:46
it was not public knowledge
00:34:51
and when mr dubinario said that you had
00:34:53
your day in court
00:34:55
what was your reaction
00:34:58
i was livid sir
00:35:02
four years to fight to get in court is
00:35:04
not a day in court
00:35:07
um i was livid too
00:35:14
this is a result of your binding
00:35:19
mandatory
00:35:21
arbitration
00:35:24
mr dibernardo
00:35:28
thank you
00:35:30
mr chairman
00:35:34
[Music]
00:35:40
as i talk to people who have been harmed
00:35:42
look most of them are not interested in
00:35:45
a big payday
00:35:46
most of these people are interested in
00:35:47
accountability and the way our system is
00:35:50
structured the only way we have some
00:35:52
holds we have to hold somebody
00:35:53
accountable is through the courthouse i
00:35:55
i can't tell you why people support tort
00:35:57
reform i can tell you that if they have
00:35:59
supported tort reform and that
00:36:01
they
00:36:02
subsequently get hurt
00:36:05
they're really sorry that they did
00:36:08
there's a story of a gentleman in waco
00:36:11
he was harmed
00:36:12
and he sought to hold the doctor who
00:36:14
harmed him accountable
00:36:16
and he came to find out that he couldn't
00:36:18
do that and he had voted for the state
00:36:21
constitutional amendment that allowed
00:36:23
the legislature to limit the rights of
00:36:25
patients and when he was told
00:36:28
well you know proposition 12
00:36:30
is what made this happen
00:36:32
made it so that you couldn't access the
00:36:34
courthouse
00:36:35
he said well i voted for that
00:36:37
and
00:36:38
they said well a lot of people did and
00:36:40
that's why it's the law of the land now
00:36:41
he said but that doesn't that that's not
00:36:43
my case that's those people who file
00:36:45
frivolous lawsuits those are those
00:36:47
people who are trying to take advantage
00:36:49
of the system that's those people who
00:36:50
are trying to cash in on some lawsuit
00:36:53
lottery that's not what i'm trying to do
00:36:55
i was harmed and all i'm trying to do is
00:36:57
hold the person who harmed me
00:36:58
accountable
00:36:59
and he realized at that moment
00:37:03
what i've been told all of these years
00:37:06
they think that's me we don't need tort
00:37:09
reform
00:37:10
uh we need to taught respect
00:37:13
where the the tort law
00:37:15
is uh what makes this country strong it
00:37:18
is tort law and the bringing of taurt
00:37:21
lawsuits and the rendering of civil
00:37:23
damages that's what keeps our toys safe
00:37:27
it's what keeps our cars from horribly
00:37:30
injuring people it's what keeps people
00:37:32
from lying cheating and stealing if we
00:37:35
can't hold perpetrators of wrongdoing
00:37:37
accountable none of us are safe from
00:37:39
their actions that's the role that the
00:37:41
civil justice system plays the one
00:37:43
entity that can hold businesses
00:37:46
bad doctors accountable is the civil
00:37:48
jury and that's what they're most afraid
00:37:50
of why is it that you support an effort
00:37:53
to limit the ability of juries to make a
00:37:56
decision when you're suing businesses
00:37:59
but you support the idea that juries
00:38:02
should be allowed to decide in death
00:38:04
penalty cases
00:38:05
where the issue is whether or not some
00:38:08
person should die ultimately it comes
00:38:10
down to whether you trust juries
00:38:12
certainly it's the best system anybody's
00:38:14
come up with in the history of the world
00:38:16
to resolve disputes involving ordinary
00:38:19
people then the question becomes what's
00:38:21
the alternative so should we let the
00:38:22
businesses decide should we let
00:38:24
arbitrators decide if we give up the
00:38:26
civil jury
00:38:27
as a tool for holding
00:38:29
wrongdoers and the business community
00:38:32
accountable what's the alternative who's
00:38:34
going to police them and the answer is
00:38:36
no one they're going to police
00:38:37
themselves and that's exactly what they
00:38:39
want
00:38:45
[Music]
00:38:48
it really opened my eyes to
00:38:52
how the system works and
00:38:55
the things that i thought
00:38:58
were in place to protect you have been
00:39:00
have been taken away
00:39:02
and i didn't realize there were caps
00:39:04
here
00:39:05
and i didn't realize that the doctor
00:39:07
wouldn't have to pay for this that the
00:39:09
taxpayers were going to pay for collins
00:39:12
damages
00:39:15
[Music]
00:39:31
this is a campaign that's occurring
00:39:33
all across the united states it's not
00:39:35
only in mississippi
00:39:37
they don't want a level playing field
00:39:40
and they'll spend millions of dollars to
00:39:42
get these people in place to be sure
00:39:45
that the judges
00:39:46
will rule the way that they want them to
00:39:55
[Music]
00:40:02
i still have flashbacks i still get
00:40:04
jumpy if someone comes up behind me
00:40:07
have nightmares
00:40:09
i wish that i could confront the men
00:40:12
that did this to my body i think that it
00:40:14
would be instrumental to my healing
00:40:17
the only way i could do that is if i'm
00:40:18
able to face them
00:40:20
in a court of law
00:40:23
and i hope to do that one day
00:40:26
[Music]
00:40:41
i mean i've heard so many ridiculous
00:40:43
stories about she was asking for 30
00:40:45
million dollars or you know something
00:40:47
equally ridiculous basically stella told
00:40:49
them i want you to cover what medicare
00:40:51
doesn't cover and i want you to get a
00:40:53
better lid on that coffee because i
00:40:55
don't want this to happen to another
00:40:56
person and that was basically what she
00:40:58
was asking for
00:41:00
when somebody goes to court
00:41:03
they're doing something extraordinary
00:41:05
that is hidden
00:41:06
to go to court and to sue is not a
00:41:09
simple procedure you have to go through
00:41:12
a lot of trouble to do it it affects
00:41:14
your life you're going to be attacked in
00:41:16
all kinds of ways going to court to gain
00:41:20
justice
00:41:21
is heroic
00:41:23
that idea has to be out there
00:41:26
that is when you quote win a case
00:41:29
you win it for other people
00:41:32
as well as gaining justice for yourself
00:41:47
[Music]
00:42:35
so
00:42:39
[Music]
00:42:54
[Music]
00:44:05
[Music]
00:44:14
[Music]
00:44:37
[Music]
00:44:46
you
