The Third District Court of Appeal held yesterday that an arbitration provision in a mobile home park lease was unconscionable where the lessees had already purchased or made down payments toward their mobile homes before being asked to sign the leases and some had limited ability to understand English, had not completed high school, and were not told that the arbitration agreement was optional or the fees associated with arbitration.
As mentioned last month, former Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye recently said that her “biggest rule” about oral argument is “do not split time,” meaning don’t take advantage of the opportunity afforded by rule 8.524(f) to have more than one attorney argue for the same side in the Supreme Court. There might be some exceptions to that blanket advice, however.
Sixth District judges ruled against a lower court conclusion that John Kevin Woodward could not be retried after charges were tossed in 1996 following two deadlocked juries.