From the Consumerist, a story about how MetLife wrongly bills someone on a $900 car insurance policy to cover the period, then sends monthly bills for additional amounts. Metlife rep agrees that there should be no additional billings, and tells consumer that problem will be fixed.   Naturally, an accident happens and the policy was terminated for non-payment of the additional amount.  So the policy holder is left holding the bag.

The problem with Metlife is one thing.  The reactions on how to “fix” the problem are another, and one that needs to be aired.  Commenters write about how the consumer needs to “get a lawyer.”  Earth to commenters, do you think the lawyer comes free?  This is all about costs that the consumer never should have incurred, and the answer isn’t to throw good money after bad.  Lawyers cost money.  How does that help?

The perception that everybody is entitled to a lawyer, and hence every problem can be fixed, without having to pay for it leads us into an abyss that serves no one.  Let’s face it, few lawyers seek cases involving $900 (or $1000, as the amount of the accident damages).  If the consumer had a friend or family member who is a lawyer, they could always ask for a favor, but let’s assume that everybody doesn’t have access to a free lawyer.

I am not faulting the consumer or the lawyer, but stating the obvious.  Lawyers are not the solution for disputes that involve relatively small amounts of money, and that leaves consumers will few choices.

There is always small claims court, but having been a small claims court arbitrator in Manhattan since 1989 as my pro bono activity, this is not the panacea that many think it is.  For one thing, claimants come to small claims nervous, unprepared (for lack of knowing how to be prepared) and unaware of the law and their rights.  While some arbitrators, like me, are trial lawyers and deal with regular people, and will put litigants at ease and help them through the process, others either can’t or won’t.  Should the litigant get a judge or arbitrator who is not of the view that they are there to help laypeople through the process, it is a horrible experience and the outcome often has little to do with justice. 

Secondly, even if you win in small claims court, collecting a judgment is by no means a given.  This is a huge gap of which attorney are painfully aware.  Small claims litigants think that some sort of magic happens and a check just appears in the mail.  This can be very disappointing when they are informed that collection is their problem.

What about regulatory agencies?  Need I even go there?  If you can get through to anyone, and if you have three years to sit and wait until somebody gets back to you, and if they care enough to pursue it beyond including it in their statistics, then you ultimately learn that you lose because they are more often industry interest groups then consumer advocates.  But why disparage agencies, since the three conditions precedent rarely if ever happen.

So what’s the answer?  I don’t know, beyond my oft-stated premise that we ALL need to stop sitting back and taking corporations screwing with us as a fact of life.  Businesses, with their “policies”, try to dictate after the fact what we get when we do business with them.  If we just stop putting up with it, stop doing business with companies that think they get to be a law unto themselves, and start making them pay the price for deceptive or unlawful practices, maybe we will have a fighting chance.  Maybe not, but just taking it surely won’t change anything.