Minnesota's Attorney General Lori Swanson has scored a major victory for consumers by banning one company that provided kangaroo court arbitration in credit card disputes from operating in that arena.

As part of your card-holder agreement, the banks that control most of the credit cards in the United States require any disputes to be settled in a forum where they pick the arbitrator and set the rules. This type of forum finds in favor of the banks 99.9996% of the time, according to a prior report. There's no way that could be a fair and impartial process.

Swanson's action was targeted against the National Arbitration Forum -- the country's largest administrator of credit card and consumer collections arbitrations.

"To consumers, the company said it was impartial," the attorney general said in a statement, "but behind the scenes, it worked alongside credit card companies to get them to put unfair arbitration clauses in the fine print of their contracts and to appoint the Forum as the arbitrator. Now the company is out of this business."

Throughout our nation's history, brave men and women have fought for our freedom and our branches of government. For the banksters to spit on their graves by not allowing you your day in court is an outrage.

There are, of course, other options that are more equitable than mandatory arbitration via a kangaroo court. Arizona is a leader in what's called alternative dispute resolution. This voluntary solution allows people to try to work out their problems with companies first -- with the understanding that going to court is possible if necessary.