Underneath All Are the Contracts

Ralph Nader explains the problem with standard form contracts and introduces faircontracts.org.

Latest News

Professor Margaret Jane Radin on “How clicking on ‘I accept terms and conditions’ threatens democracy”

Professor Margaret Jane Radin on Boilerplate: How clicking on “I accept terms and conditions” threatens democracyListen to the Sunday, April 14 interview here with the CBC Radio Canada here:http://www.cbc.ca/thesundayedition/shows/2013/04/14/margaret-radin-on-boilerplate/

Read More...

Using the Corporate Fine Print of Debit Card Contracts to Zing Public-Transit Riders (and, in turn, to generate non-fare revenue fees for cash-strapped government agencies)

Our guest post on the Public Citizen Consumer Law & Policy Blog about the CTA Ventra fare/debit card roll out can be found here.  Fair Contracts made a FOIA request for the contract and the information to be presented to CTA riders.   

Read More...

Rick Perlstein at The Nation Magazine Writes About Our Fair Contracts Work

Rick Perlstein at The Nation Magazine Writes About Our Fair Contracts Work See Small Print, Big Problem (Part 1: Diagnosis) here and Small Print, Big Problem (Part 2:  Remedies) here. The PDF of both is posted with permission here.

Read More...

Meet Frog Hog

THE FROG HOG’S TOP FIVE PROVISIONS TO LOOK OUT FOR IN BOILERPLATE CONTRACTS 1) There goes the Judge! Don’t let the fine print lock you out of the courtroom because it forces you into arbitration instead – often in places far away from where you live or work! 2) There goes the Class! Don’t let…

Read More...

“Fine Print” a Hip Hop Song by Social Justice Artist Lonnie Ray Atkinson

Read More...

Bob Sullivan at Red Tape Chronicles Discusses Boilerplate, Fair Contracts Advisory Board Member Professor Margaret Jane Radin’s Book

Bob Sullivan of NBC’s Red Tape Chronicles discusses Professor Margaret Jane Radin’s book Boilerplate here.  

Read More...

Fair Contracts Advisory Board Member Margaret Jane Radin’s book, Boilerplate, Gets Great Review in the Wall Street Journal

Fair Contracts Advisory Board Member Margaret Jane Radin’s book, Boilerplate, Gets Great Review in the Wall Street Journal Robert F. Nagel favorably reviews Professor Radin’s book in a December 20, 2012 Wall Street Journal article:  “Devil’s in the Small Print; Boilerplate contracts undermine rights people are entitled to by requiring that one party to an…

Read More...

Come One, Come All to Hear Professor Margaret Jane Radin Speak on Her New Book Boilerplate

In the last three months three significant books have been published on the fine print in standard form contracts.  Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Cay Johnston has written The Fine Print, How Big Companies Use “Plain English” to Rob You Blind (published by the Penguin Group); New York University Law Professor Oren-Bar Gill has written Seduction…

Read More...

American Law Institute’s Restatement Third, The Law of Consumer Contracts

The American Law Institute has a group now working on the Restatement Third, The Law of Consumer Contracts.  It held its first Advisers meeting at NYU Law on Friday, November 30, to begin the process of clarifying how the law treats/should treat boilerplate business-to-consumer contracts, as compared to negotiated contracts, because they are currently lumped…

Read More...

Pay Pal Opt-Out

 Meet Cat Lobster…You Just Know It Can’t Be Good…       The Fair Contracts Opt Out Campaign   Do You Have a Pay Pal Account?   PAY PAL is giving you a limited chance to preserve your right to go to court by opting out from forced arbitration and class action waivers in the…

Read More...