How often do we walk into a doctor’s office or even a hospital, not feeling well, needing a doctor, and being told you have to sign some forms before admission, to place your signature on the little screen that must be signed, without the opportunity to read what you are signing? You are told that you need to sign the blank electronic pad before you can get any care irrespective of your condition or ability to focus on the subject. Of course, you’ve done it before and you survived, and probably even realize that if you don’t sign again, you will not get needed medical care.

We work and live in a state in which Atalese v. U.S. Legal Services Group and other cases require detailed and complete advice in an understandable form before a party can be subject to arbitration (which, by the way, is usually the procedure when a dispute arises regarding the medical treatment we now address). Opinions also tell us what must be detailed in understandable language before an arbitration agreement in a retainer agreement can be enforced. Our law bars small print form provisions in an installment contract regarding the purchase of a refrigerator, and there are all sorts of consumer fraud protection rules, including the required breakdown of small figures concerning the actual cost of registration and license fees when purchasing a car or when buying household furniture.