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Arbitrators’ decisions usually stand

For those not familiar with arbitra-tion, it’s a form of dispute resolu-tion that goes on outside the courts. Someone called an arbitrator (whose credentials to do this sort of work could be stellar or marginal) receives evidence in an informal hearing and renders a decision.

Absent gross misconduct by the arbitrator (bribes, romantic involve-ment with one of the parties, conflicts of interest, severe dementia, etc.), the arbitrator’s decision is final and bind-ing, and there is no right of appeal.

Companies in the financial-services industry decided a decade or so ago that they could improve their fate in disputes with consumers if those disputes were resolved by arbitration

rather than litigation in the courts. That’s because arbitration gets rid of trial by jury, where consumers are thought to have an edge, and class ac-tions, where consum-ers are again thought to have an edge (and where, usually, only the lawyers win). Many financial-servic-es contracts, therefore, contain provisions stating that disputes

must be resolved by arbitration.Whether arbitration is good or bad

for consumers is in the eye of the be-holder. In theory, at least, arbitration is cheaper and faster than dispute resolution in the courts. But the lack of a right of appeal is troubling, for the same reason that finally led the NFL to use instant replay — the first person making the call doesn’t always get it right.

Also troubling is the fact that arbi-trators, unlike judges, are selected by and paid by the parties to the dispute, and, in consumer cases, they are mostly paid by the financial-services company, not the consumer. Since financial-services companies, un-like their consumer customers, are frequent users of arbitration services, someone desirous of making a liv-ing as an arbitrator doesn’t want to develop a reputation for being overly friendly to consumers.

The enforceability of arbitration clauses in financial-services con-tracts has been hotly litigated over the past several years. Although a court will, on occasion, throw out a grossly unfair provision (such as one requiring a resident of one state to go to another state to participate in a hearing), by and large the big guys have won these cases, several of them at the U.S. Supreme Court.

These judicial victories have, howev-er, generated a backlash (proving that the law of unintended consequences remains in effect). By way of example, Congress is mulling something called the Arbitration Fairness Act that, if enacted, would make agreements to arbitrate employment, consumer, franchise and civil rights disputes unenforceable.

And the Minnesota attorney general last year sued the National Arbitra-tion Forum, the largest provider of arbitration services in the country for consumer-credit disputes, argu-ing that it was anything but neutral when providing arbitration services in connection with consumer-credit controversies. A settlement was quickly reached in the case, pursu-ant to which the National Arbitra-tion Forum agreed to shut down its consumer-credit-arbitration business (saying it was a money-losing venture in any event).

To briefly summarize the current state of the law, take-it-or-leave-it pro-visions in consumer-credit contracts requiring arbitration that are fair and reasonable are likely to be enforce-able. Provisions that are grossly unfair to consumers remain subject to challenge.

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Jim Flynn is a private attorney at Flynn Wright & Fredman LLC in Colorado Springs. Reach him at jtflynn@fwflegal.com.

volunteer squeezes in day jobQ&a c.J. moore

The list of awards that C.J. Moore has won is long.

That list includes the Athena Award, Girl Scouts Women of Dis-tinction, Southern Colorado Wom-en’s Chamber Business Leader of the Year and, just this month, Business Leader in the Arts.

But there’s a list that’s even lon-ger — the list of boards and com-mittees on which Moore serves. She’s chairwoman of the Colorado Springs Conservatory board of directors. She also serves on the Rocky Mountain PBS state board,

Pikes Peak Community College Foundation board, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs Chan-cellor’s Leadership Class communi-ty board, Southeast/Armed Forces YMCA advisory board and the El Paso County Board of Health (as vice chairwoman). She also serves on many committees, including the American Heart Association Heart Ball committee and the YMCA Tur-key Trot race committee.

And that’s all on top of her day job: Moore is the southern Colora-do public affairs director for Kai-

Arts lover leads Kaiser Permanente public affairs

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see moore • Page 3

by bill RadfoRdbill.radford@gazette.com—

C.J. Moore is the southern Colorado public affairs director for Kaiser Permanente, one of the country’s largest nonprof-it health plans. She loves science fiction books and films.

JERILEE BENNETT, THE GAZETTE

money & the law

jim flynn

CoLuMNIST

money mavenEstate-planning attorney can help secure real estate from probate, liability. Page 5

a life rebuiltich Strycker thought he knew what it

was to succeed.Strycker, now 62, believed he had

achieved success as a top executive of Otero Savings in the early 1980s. But he ended up serving four months on work release after pleading guilty to misapplying funds from Ot-ero before its 1990 collapse.

He owned a successful sportswear company that grew fivefold in a single year in the late 1990s. But the company lost a key customer, and Strycker suffered a heart attack in 2000 while trying to save the business.

From those low points, “I came to realize that my definition of success has nothing to do with material things and everything to do with family, friends and faith,” Strycker said.

Now he’s ending the latest — and apparently last — chapter in a varied career. He’s retiring; Friday was his last day as executive director of Greccio Housing, a Colorado Springs-based low-income housing group that he helped more than double in size.

At Greccio, he made less than half his top sal-ary at Otero. But it was what he was able to ac-complish at Greccio that’s important to him, he said.

“I hope I’m a lot humbler than I was 20 years ago,” he said. “I have learned a lot more from fail-ure than success, and I have had a fair amount of both. There are a lot of different things that could have happened and other paths I could have followed, but because of friends, family and God’s grace, it turned out well.”

A tough learning experienceAn Elkhart, Ind., native, Strycker had planned

to be a lawyer. But after one semester of law school at Notre Dame University, he “hated the notion of law as career” and became a mort-gage-loan officer for a savings and loan associ-ation in South Bend, Ind. He went from there to a nearby bank, where he got into building, managing and leasing real estate projects it owned, and then moved to Dallas.

A chance meeting at a church led to a job with a real estate company specializing in property management. The company later bought a Tex-as thrift and hired Jim Gallagher to run it, and Strycker and Gallagher got to know each other. Otero hired Gallagher in 1982 as executive vice president and a year later made him chief oper-ating officer; he hired Strycker a year after that and would later become Otero’s CEO.

by wayne heilmanwayneh@gazette.com—

greccio housing director

Man changed course after low points

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see strycker • Page 3

Rich Strycker just retired from Greccio Housing unlimited, a nonprofit that helps low-income families get affordable housing. He’s shown in front of one of the properties managed and co-owned by Greccio, the Bentley Commons apartments.

JERILEE BENNETT, THE GAZETTE

r “I hope I’m a lot humbler than I was 20 years ago. I have learned a lot more from failure than success, and I have had a fair amount of both. There are a lot of different things that could have happened and other paths I could have fol-lowed, but be-cause of friends, family and God’s grace, it turned out well.”rIch STrYcKer

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