[Random-bits] Judge Calls AOL Litigation Terms Unfair

[James Love]

Good court decisions on jurisdiction and contracts of adhesion.  
Jamie

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/09/28/BU80948.DTL

Judge Calls AOL Litigation Terms Unfair

 Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer 
                                                    
 Thursday, September 28, 2000 

America Online users who sue the Internet giant
should not be forced to transfer their lawsuits to the
company's home state of Virginia because it is ``unfair
and unreasonable,'' an Alameda County judge has
ruled.

In a decision Monday, Superior Court Judge Ronald
Sabraw said legal remedies in Virginia are not
comparable to those in California, which AOL has
acknowledged.

The decision comes in a lawsuit filed in June by Al
Mendoza Jr. of Sacramento, who accused AOL of
continuing to charge his credit card

--which he was forced to cancel -- three months
after he canceled his trial subscription.

``If I am required to sue in Virginia, I will drop the
matter because the cost of travel alone is obviously
many times more'' than the $65 that AOL owed him,
Mendoza said in court papers.

Mendoza said he was surprised when he learned that
AOL had a standard membership agreement requiring
all lawsuits to be filed in Virginia.

Mendoza said he did not remember reading a clause
saying all lawsuits had to be filed in Virginia and
lambasted AOL for using it ``as a way to avoid its legal
responsibilities.''

He has asked the case to be deemed a class-action
lawsuit on behalf of ``many hundreds of people who I
believe have suffered from the same unfair billing
practice.''

Nicholas Graham, an AOL spokesman, said yesterday
that he could not discuss the lawsuit because he was
unfamiliar with its details. Everett Johnson, a
Washington, D.C., attorney representing AOL, did not
return a call seeking comment.

Mendoza said he signed up for AOL in early October
using an unsolicited free disc he received in the mail
that promised free trial service for 30 days. He
remembered following numerous instructions and
reading ``densely worded, small-size text that was
hard to read on the computer screen.''

Kennedy Richardson, an Oakland attorney
representing Mendoza, said AOL routinely mails
formal requests for dismissals to local small- claims
courts, citing the Virginia requirement. In most cases,
the claimants drop the matter.

E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.