California resident Dennis Sheehan took Gateway to
small claims court after he reportedly received a defective computer and
little technical support from the PC manufacturer. Gateway responded with
their own lawyer and a 2-inch thick stack of legal docs, and claimed that
Sheehan violated the EULA, which requires that users give up their right
to sue and settle these cases in private arbitration. Sheehan responded
that he never read the EULA, which pops up when the user first starts the
computer, because the graphics were scrambled — precisely the problem he
had complained to tech support in the first place. A judge sided with
Sheehan on May 24 and the case will proceed to small claims court. A
lawyer is quoted as saying that Sheehan, a high school dropout who is
arguing his own case, is in for a world of hurt: ‘This poor guy now faces
daunting reality of having to litigate this on appeal against
Gateway…By winning, he’s lost.’”

Source: Slashdot

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