Terms of Use/Scope of Appellate Tracker Blog/Arbitration Clause/Class Action Waiver.
Severson & Werson’s appellate practice group tracks, reviews, and analyzes important decisions published by the California state appellate courts, the Ninth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court. Visit our blog often for up-to-the-minute coverage of major developments affecting financial services, labor & employment, insurance, construction, and more.
Questions about our case summaries or the issues they cover? Contact a member of our appellate team:
Jan T. Chilton, Chair of Appellate Practice Group: jtc@severson.com
Erik W. Kemp, Member: ek@severson.com
NOTE, HOWEVER, that the posts distributed by electronic mail to subscribers also may be posted on Severson & Werson’s twitter account, and LinkedIn page, or re-posted by administrators, authors, or employees of Severson & Werson. The subscribers/followers/”friends” for such social media are different than the subscribers to this weblog, and, accordingly, public viewing and posting is anticipated through such other social media to which this weblog posts. Moreover, this weblog contains buttons which allow its subscribers to email and post to their own social media. Again, public viewing and sharing is anticipated, and nothing subscribers post or view should be assumed to be private.
If subscribers or users share information from this weblog on other social media, subscriber doing so agrees to defend, indemnify, and hold Severson & Werson harmless against any claims arising out of the sharing and/or use of such information by the subscriber. The information posted on this weblog is the property of Severson & Werson; subscribers may use the social media buttons to republish the weblog’s posts for subscribers’ own personal use and for educational purposes so long as proper attribution is given. However, any reproduction, retransmission, or republication of the weblog’s posts for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited without the express written permission of Severson & Werson.
Severson & Werson reserves the right to limit access to or subscription to the financial services industry, and can refuse subscription to the Blog to anyone, for any reason, and at its sole discretion. This Blog is for adults aged 18 and over and data subjects in the United States only, and by accessing the website generally or the Blog specifically, users represent and warrant that they meet the criteria for accessing and/or using the Blog. Access or use of the website generally or the Blog specifically by individuals who do not meet this criteria is expressly prohibited and unauthorized. Severson & Werson reserves the right to deny, ban, or revoke subscription to any person who violates the Terms of Use of our Blog, refuses to agree to the Arbitration Clause/Class Action Waiver, or just because we feel like it.
Not Legal Advice/No Attorney-Client Privilege.
Severson & Werson makes the Blog available only for the educational purpose of giving general information and developments on legal topics in California relevant to the automobile finance industry. It is not a solicitation for business. The Blog does not offer general or specific legal advice nor does it (or the ability to contact us by e-mail through the Blog) create an attorney-client relationship between subscribers or users and us, or between subscribers or users and Severson & Werson. Severson & Werson accepts clients only through strict, formal procedures established by the Firm, and the Firm does not render advice by Blog or by e-mail associated with the Blog.
At bottom, this blog does not constitute legal advice, and none of its posts, comments, or e-mails should be interpreted or relied on as such. Severson & Werson makes no claims, promises or guarantees about the choices, accuracy, completeness, timeliness, relevance, or adequacy of the information contained in or linked to from the Blog, or of any of the documents or links posted on it. The posts are things we choose to write about at our exclusive discretion. Sometimes, the cases summarized are ones that we handled or were involved in and sometimes they are not, and we do not and need not disclose which are which.
Disclaimer of Warranties.
The Blog and its contents are provided without warranties of any kind whether express or implied. Severson & Werson expressly disclaims any liability with respect to actions you or any party may take or refrain from taking in response to or in reliance on this Blog or the Blog content or any linked site. In short, if you need legal advice, find counsel and formally retain them. Articles that we write or post or link to from time to time are, again, for informational purposes only and we do not control their content or vouch for it—even if we wrote the article.
Third Party Links.
The Blog may contain links to third party websites, resources, or social media, or the ability to forward posts to third party websites, resources, or social media. These links are provided for your convenience and are not intended to imply that Severson & Werson endorses or controls the linked-to sites or verify the accuracy of the information contained on those sites.
Comments, E-mails, and Consent/Revocation
In order to subscribe, you must provide us with a valid name and e-mail address. By pushing the “subscribe button” and/or confirming your subscription, you represent and warrant that you are over the age of 18 years old, are the owner/authorized user of that e-mail address, are in the United States and not subject to non-United States privacy laws (such as GDPR), and are entitled to receive e-mails at that address. The weblog will retain your name and e-mail address on its server, or the server of its web host and we won’t share any of this information with anyone except the Firm’s employees and contractors, except under certain extraordinary circumstances described below.
NOTICE AND AGREEMENT REGARDING E-MAILS AND CALLS/TEXT MESSAGES TO LAND-LINE AND WIRELESS TELEPHONES: By providing your contact information, you agree to receive e-mail messages from Severson & Werson from time-to-time and understand and agree to receive such messages by means of automated dialing technology. If you have your email forwarded to other electronic media, including text messages and cellular telephone by way of VoIP, internet, social media, or otherwise, you agree to receive my messages in that way. This may result in charges to you. Your agreement and consent also extends to any other persons connected to you, agents, affiliates, or entities who receive the communications due to their relationship with you or to whom our communications are forwarded by you. You agree that you will notify Severson & Werson in writing if you revoke this agreement and that your revocation will not be effective until you notify Severson & Werson in writing. You understand and agree that you will afford Severson & Werson a reasonable time to unsubscribe you from the website, that the ability to do so depends on Severson & Werson’s press of business and access to the weblog, and that you may still receive one or more emails or communications from weblog until we are able to unsubscribe you.
If you send us an e-mail, your e-mail address and log-in name typically will be displayed at the top of your message. We retain most of the messages we receive, so your address and that message likely will remain on record in our e-mail archives and/or on our servers. These archives are stored on servers owned by a third party.
Cookies.
The Blog may use cookies to record your log file. Cookies are small text files placed automatically on your hard drive by your web browser when you visit certain websites in order to make those sites easier to use. You can configure your browser to disable cookies and/or to alert you when new ones are being sent, but please note that some features of my Blog might not work properly if you do so. Please see our Privacy Policy at https://www.severson.com/privacy-policy/ for more information about cookies.
Disclosure.
We reserve the right to disclose your e-mail address in the following extraordinary circumstances: (a) if we believe in good faith that we are required to do so by law; or (b) if we believe in good faith that such disclosure is necessary to defend the site’s infrastructure or legal rights, (c) if we believe in good faith that such disclosure is necessary for us to defend our legal rights, or (d) if we believe that you threaten or abuse us. If you send an e-mail message, you consent to your message—including your name, e-mail address, and IP address—being reprinted in full on the Blog should we deem that information worthy of publication. If you do not consent to that information being made public, please specifically say so in your message.
Threatening and/or abusive communications.
Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions, we reserve the right to collect, disclose, and publicize personal information about anyone who sends a threatening or abusive communication, in any format or by any medium, to us, the Firm’s employees or contractors, or other subscribers to the Blog. We will not honor requests for privacy attached to such communications, and deem them by their nature not to be private. We specifically disclaim all responsibility for any false or defamatory matter in the comments, since those are written and posted by others.
Rights of California Residents.
For rights of California Residents under the California Consumer Privacy Act and otherwise, please visit our Privacy Policy at https://www.severson.com/privacy-policy/ for more information.
Arbitration/Class Action Waiver.
The following arbitration provisions significantly affect your rights in any dispute with us. Please read the following disclosures and the arbitration provision that follows carefully before you sign the contract.
1. If either you or we choose, any dispute between you and us will be decided by arbitration and not in court.
2. If such dispute is arbitrated, you and we will give up the right to a trial by a court or a jury trial.
3. You agree to give up any right you may have to bring a class action lawsuit or class arbitration, or to participate in either as a claimant, and you agree to give up any right you may have to consolidate your arbitration with the arbitration of others.
4. The information that can be obtained in discovery from each other or from third persons in arbitration is generally more limited than in a lawsuit.
5. Other rights that you and/or we would have in court may not be available in arbitration.
Any claim or dispute, whether in contract, tort, statute, or otherwise (including any dispute over the interpretation, scope, or validity of this provision, arbitration section or the arbitrability of any issue), between you and Severson & Werson, P.C., or any of our shareholders, employees, agents, contractors, webhosts, web designers, administrators, successors, or assigns (each a “Third Party Beneficiary”), which arises out of or relates to this website, the data provided to us, the data held to us, alleged improper data exfiltration or sharing, your subscription, or any resulting transaction or relationship arising out of your access to the Firm’s website or weblog(s) (including any such relationship with third parties who do not sign this contract) shall, at the election of either you, us, or a Third Party Beneficiary, be resolved by a neutral, binding arbitration and not by a court action. Any claim or dispute is to be arbitrated on an individual basis and not as a class action. The arbitration shall be administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, or by any other organization that you may choose, subject to our or a Third Party Beneficiary’s approval. You may get a copy of the rules of the American Arbitration Association by visiting its website at www.adr.org.
The arbitrator shall be an attorney or retired judge and shall be selected in accordance with the applicable rules. The arbitrator shall apply the law in deciding the dispute. The arbitration hearing shall be conducted in the federal district in which you reside in California or, if you do not reside in California, in the federal district for the United States District Court for the Central District of California. If you demand arbitration first, you will pay the claimant’s initial arbitration filing fees or case management fees required by the applicable rules up to $125, and we will pay any additional initial filing fee or case management fee. We will pay the whole filing fee or case management fee if we demand arbitration first. We will pay the arbitration costs and fees for the first day of arbitration, up to a maximum of eight hours. The arbitrator shall decide who shall pay any additional costs and fees. Nothing in this paragraph shall prevent you from requesting that the applicable arbitration entity reduce or waive your fees, or that we or a Third Party Beneficiary voluntarily pay an additional share of said fees, based upon your financial circumstances or the nature of your claim.
Your access to the Firm’s website, subscription to and use of the Firm’s weblog(s), and providing of data to the Firm in connection with same evidences a transaction involving interstate commerce. Any arbitration under this agreement shall be governed by the Federal Arbitration Act (9 USC 1, et seq.). Judgment upon the award rendered may be entered in any court having jurisdiction.
If any clause within this arbitration section, other than clause 3 or any similar provision dealing with class action, class arbitration or consolidation, is found to be illegal or unenforceable, that clause will be severed from this arbitration section, and the remainder of this arbitration section will be given full force and effect. If any part of clause 3 or any similar provision dealing with class action, class arbitration or consolidation is found to be illegal or unenforceable, then this entire arbitration section will be severed and the remaining provisions of this agreement shall be given full force and effect as if the arbitration section of this agreement had not been included in the Terms of Use. In no event shall an arbitrator be authorized to resolve a claim or dispute or make awards or grant relief exceeding the limitations in clause 3 or any similar provision on class actions, class arbitrations, or consolidation.
© 2016-2020 SEVERSON & WERSON, P.C. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS BLOG IS PROVIDED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. SOME OF THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS BLOG MAY BE A COMMUNICATION OR SOLICITATION UNDER CALIFORNIA RULES OF PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT, RULE 1-400(D)(4), AND THEREFORE NO INFORMATION HEREIN SHOULD BE CONSTRUED AS LEGAL ADVICE OR AS CONTRIBUTING TO THE FORMATION OF AN ATTORNEY-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP. NO RECIPIENTS OF CONTENT FROM THIS BLOG, CLIENTS OR OTHERWISE, SHOULD ACT OR REFRAIN FROM ACTING ON THE BASIS OF ANY CONTENT INCLUDED IN THESE POSTS WITHOUT SEEKING THE APPROPRIATE LEGAL OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL ADVICE ON THE PARTICULAR FACTS AND CIRCUMSTANCES AT ISSUE FROM AN ATTORNEY LICENSED IN THE RECIPIENT’S STATE. THE CONTENT OF THIS BLOG CONTAINS GENERAL INFORMATION AND MAY NOT REFLECT CURRENT LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS, VERDICTS, OR SETTLEMENTS. SEVERSON & WERSON, P.C. EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL LIABILITY IN RESPECT TO ACTIONS TAKEN OR NOT TAKEN BASED ON ANY OR ALL OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS BLOG. ALL CONTENT IS COPYRIGHTED AND MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION.