Please read the article and answer the following questions: https://www.spilmanl

Question

Please read the article and answer the following questions: https://www.spilmanlaw.com/dataentry/resources/attorney-articles/construction/enforcing-your-arbitration-agreement-just-became-a

Do you think the trial, appeals or high court's decision could have been affected by the sub-prime loan crisis?

Can you find another case where a court found a contract unconscionable? If so, on what basis?

Based on what you've read, do you believe that you're a party to a contract that might be unconscionable?

How do you balance the Tillman analysis with the idea that a grown adult should be responsible for knowing the deal before signing anything?

If you don't believe you are a party to an unconscionable contract, ask a friend about their contracts. Share their anonymous story as part of the discussion.

Explanation / Answer

1) I am actually not very convinced about the court’s decision was moreover influenced by the lending crisis. I believe the Tillman case stood on its own merits as an example of a truly unconscionable contract which was rightly deemed detrimental to loan borrowers.

The Tillman case was usurped in North Carolina by the Torrence v. Nationwide Budget Finances case. It suggests that courts strive to decide cases using the facts of the contract dispute rather than basing decisions on a related but not identical set of events.

2) In Waters v. Min Ltd. case, the Superior Court of Massachusetts found the contract for the purchase of an annuity from the plaintiff by the defendant unconscionable. The court held that the plaintiff was influenced by her romantic relationship with a man who encouraged her to sell her annuity to the defendant to procure money for their shared drug habit.

The plaintiff was young (age 21) and lacked legal counsel at the time her boyfriend arranged for her to sell the annuity to the defendant. The court believed the plaintiff was further disadvantaged due to the fact her boyfriend essentially behaved as the agent to the defendants and acted in his self interest rather than hers.

Additionally, the cash payment made to the plaintiff by the defendant in exchange for the annuity was only about ¼ of the actual cash value of the annuity at the time of the transaction, an unfair deal for the plaintiff. For these reasons the Superior Court affirmed the Appeals Court ruling in favor of the plaintiff.

3) Many adults sign agreements because they are desperate for what is being provided to them. Thus their responsibility is mitigated by their desperation. In the lender situation we see this occur as the borrowers needed money, and would’ve agreed to anything.

Language in contracts should be written so they can be understood by a layperson, and clauses which affect enforcement of the contact in the legal system should be clear to both signing parties. Parties should not have to have law education to understand the terms and conditions of the contract they are about to sign. Courts could throw out contracts that incorporate undue legal terms or bury important terms in the text of the document.

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