San Francisco Chronicle, "California consumers notch win [on Class Action Suits]"

                    The California Supreme Court's June 27 ruling essentially guarantees you the right to file a class action against a company under California law -- a right that many companies have sought to deny people by placing so-called arbitration clauses in customer contracts.
          Arbitration clauses, which are now commonplace in the financial-services and telecom industries, typically state that a customer agrees to settle any dispute by arbitration, as opposed to a lawsuit, and waives the right to band together with other customers.
          This latter prohibition clearly favors companies by preventing an individual $10 settlement, say, from escalating to a class-wide $10 million settlement. (It also acts as a deterrent to anyone pursuing a measly $10 settlement in the first place.)
          The Supreme Court, in a 4-3 decision, ruled that "such class action or arbitration waivers are indisputably one-sided" and "at least to the extent they operate to insulate a party from liability that otherwise would be imposed under California law, are generally unconscionable."