Contracts written in fine print are a fact of life whenever consumers sign up for credit cards, buy a car, get a cell phone, or even sign for admission to the hospital. Increasingly these contracts contain a little-known clause requiring signers to give up their constitutional right to a trial by jury if they have a dispute with the company they’re contracting with. Instead, consumers must agree to binding arbitration, a process that may favor the companies who are repeat customers of the arbitration service over ordinary middle-class consumers. The Arbitration Fairness Act would protect the ability of middle-class Americans to go to court when a company treats them unfairly by restricting these so-called “pre-dispute arbitration agreements.”