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Comment by jstummbillig | Hacker News Reader

You can put a clause in your contract that prohibits someone from using specific legal action at your discretion? That sounds wild so I am interested. What is the justification for this? How could anyone basically preemptively and effectively exempt themselves from specific legal action regardless of wrongdoing? What would happen if the other party tried anyway?

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Oh, this is extremely common in the boilerplate of almost every single contract and ToS I've read in my adult life (IANAL, just referring to the contracts I've signed or chosen not to sign that I've come across). If you look at something like the contract for your credit card, I guarantee you'll find a clause entitled "Arbitration", "Mediation", or something akin to that where it basically says "If something bad happens, you give up your right to sue us and instead agree to binding arbitration by a mediator of our choice." As for what would happen if one party tried to sue the other anyway, I think it would depend on the nature of the grievance. Again, IAN[even_close_to_being]AL.

These class action waivers began to completely take over after DirectTV vs Imburgia was decided in 2016:

https://www.jonesday.com/en/insights/2016/01/us-supreme-cour...

An increasingly extreme Supreme Court has repeatedly expanded the ability of employers and service providers, including ISPs, to prohibit class actions in their contracts. Even retailers now attempt to compel their customers into forced arbitration.

You can put whatever you want in the contract. That doesn’t mean the court will honor it. That’s why TOS have severability clauses; so that the rest of the contract survives if a judge strikes down a clause as invalid during a lawsuit.

I would guess that since Robinhood has been found guilty of misleading customers it wouldn't be too difficult to say they were negotiating in bad faith.

Note: This is complete arm chair lawyering with no real world knowledge

If you're in the US, you should pay more attention to the contractual agreements you're entering into.

I would find it incredible that you haven't agreed to binding arbitration many times throughout the normal course of your financial and commercial activity.

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