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Doctors Silencing Online Patient Reviews Via Contract
Condiment writes "Next time you're sick, take five and actually read the pile of contracts your doctor dumps on your lap, because it's becoming more and more likely that your doctors are banning patients from posting reviews on the Web. You heard that right: as a prerequisite to receiving medical care, patients are in many cases required to sign away their First Amendment rights!"
Bzzt. You can effectively sign away your right to sue and many people do, routinely, without realizing it. (The most common are cell phone, cable, and other service contracts.) The culprit is called a mandatory binding arbitration clause and when you try to sue the company, the court will require you submit to arbitration since that's what you and the other party agreed upon when you signed the contract.
Now, arbitration doesn't really sound all that bad, does it? It's just like court only less expensive and with fewer gavels, right? Well, yes. For the company you're in a dispute with. The average person would still need a lawyer to properly interpret the terms of the contract (let alone contract law itself). Oh and by the way, the company gets to pick the arbitration firm. And they get to decide where the arbitration is held. And if by some chance you can make it the arbitration location with lawyer in tow and make a convincing case, you still only have about a 5% chance of the arbitration firm ruling in your favor.
Okay, so appeal the arbiter's decision in court, right? Nice try, but unless you somehow got permission to record the arbitration proceedings (unlikely, since companies try to keep arbitrations strictly non-public), you've got no evidence to make a case with. And in any event, courts have historically said, "sorry buddy, you agreed to an arbitration in the contract so now you're stuck with it."
Arbitration clauses are another thing that need to be outlawed, IMO.