Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Arbitration by Door Posting?



Dan Barnhizer (Michigan State) posted yesterday on the Contracts list serve this photo sent to him from a student that saw it at a Whataburger. The text reads:

"Arbitration Notice"
"By entering these premises, you hereby agree to resolve any and all disputes or claims of any kind whatsoever, which arise from the products, services or premises, by way of binding arbitration, not litigation. No suit or action may be filed in any state or federal court. Any arbitration shall be governed by the FEDERAL ARBITRATION ACT, and administered by the American Mediation Association.
"Arbitration Notice"

Naturally, this raises many questions about consent to abitration, class action arbitrations and rules that might even apply to any such disputes. And, of course, Barnhizer asked "what they do for drive-through customers?"
- JSM

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

it also looks like a pathological clause, since as far as I can tell the "American Mediation Association" is not an organization that has rules of arbitration or administers arbitration (or mediation) proceedings.

so having tried to opt out of the courts, the restaurant order has instead sent themselves back for a battle over a jurisdictional issue...

Anonymous said...

it is also a pathological clause, since the American Mediation Association does not appear to be an organization that provides rules of arbitration nor administers arbitration (or mediation) proceedings.

so the restaurant did not really opt out of the courts...they forced themselves back for determination of an initial jurisdictional issue.