Plea bargaining in the United States
The constitutionality of plea bargaining was established by "Brady v. United States" in 1970, although the Supreme Court warned that plea incentives which were sufficiently large or coercive as to over-rule defendants' abilities to act freely, or used in a manner giving rise to a significant number of innocent people pleading guilty, might be prohibited or lead to concerns over constitutionality. "Santobello v. New York" added that when plea bargains are broken, legal remedies exist.
United States Arbitration Association
Business and commercial contracts often include arbitration provisions. Mandatory arbitration clauses have, at times, been the target of news reports identifying their potential abuses and also the subject of proposed legislation Arbitration in the United States (section Arbitration Fairness Act). When an arbitration provision is agreed to contractually between the parties, judicial relief (filing in a court of law) is unavailable as a remedy for disputes. United States Arbitration Association provides the administrative infrastructure for small to mid-sized claims to be decided before a single arbitrator for a small standardized fee, with the delivery of a simple award. In part, this addresses the need to contain costs, as a panel of three arbitrators triples the cost of the arbitrator's hourly rate. The arbitrator is either appointed according to USADR rules, or selected in accordance with the parties' agreement. Under its rules, USADR may appoint an arbitrator in some circumstances, for example, in lower dollar claims where the parties have not specified a process for arbitrator selection.