Did you give up legal rights?

Did you give up legal rights to get wireless?
Fine print in Cingular, AOL contracts at issue

By CANDACE HECKMAN
P-I REPORTER

After signing a one-size-fits-all, prewritten contract to get wireless service, a bank account or even a credit card, consumers are usually signing away their basic right to their day in court. And not many realize it.

Today, nearly every consumer in the country is bound by one of these provisions typically buried in lines of fine print or in the middle of a scrolling computer window. It's a clause requiring mandatory arbitration, one that essentially prohibits taking class action, or one that includes both.

But a couple of cases heard by the state Supreme Court Tuesday could slow that trend, at least in Washington.

In one case, justices could invalidate a contract provision that would ban consumers from filing any lawsuits within the state. In the other, the justices could stop companies from forcing consumers to waive their ability to join a class action.

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According to Cingular's standard contract, a clause that was circulated as a bill insert a couple of years ago, customers can take on the company individually but not as part of a class-action lawsuit.

It is now up to the state Supreme Court to decide whether Cingular, and consequently other companies, can subject its customers to such a ban, especially given that consumers do not have any say or negotiating power before signing its contracts.

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In a separate case Tuesday, justices heard arguments from America Online, which has a clause in its contract that would force consumers to only take action in Virginia courts. The state of Virginia does not have a process for which consumers can bring class-action lawsuits to court.

The Washington Court of Appeals struck down that provision, saying the clause violated public policy.