New Jersey couple John and Georgia McGinty were riding in an Uber in March 2022 when their driver got into a wreck. They both survived, but Georgia spent a week in the critical care unit with a fractured spine and abdominal trauma while John escaped with “only” a broken sternum and a hand injury. As the Independent reports, when the McGintys tried to sue Uber over the crash, the judge determined they couldn’t because they’d agreed to the app’s arbitration clause in its Terms of Use when their daughter used Uber Eats to order a pizza.
Unfortunately for the McGintys, the fact that something can be so laughably absurd doesn’t mean it’s not legal. The New Jersey Supreme Court issued a ruling, saying, “We hold that the arbitration provision contained in the agreement under review, which Georgia or her minor daughter, while using her cell phone agreed to, is valid and enforceable.”
“How would I ever remotely think that my ability to protect my constitutional rights to a trial would be waived by me ordering food?” John told the Independent. Georgia also questioned how the court could rule that she “authorised [her] child to waive [their] rights to go to a trial if [they’re] injured in a car accident.”
Now, just because this case is currently headed to arbitration, that doesn’t mean the McGintys will be left with nothing. That said, arbitration is an unpredictable process that tends to be heavily tilted in favor of large corporations, the rules of evidence are far more lax and victims are unable to appeal the arbitrator’s decision. Ultimately, there’s no way to know whether the arbitrator will even award them enough money to cover the substantial medical debt they accumulated while recovering from their injuries.
If this bullshit sounds familiar, that’s probably because Disney recently tried the exact same thing when a man filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the company after his wife died from an allergic reaction to food she was served at a restaurant in Disney World back in 2023. Disney originally argued that he couldn’t sue the company as he had agreed to the Disney+ terms of service, but Disney changed its tune once the press picked up the story, so hopefully, this case gets enough coverage that Uber makes the same decision.
Sadly, not every case is going to break through enough to get international or even national attention. I’m more than happy to use my platform to bully Uber into doing the halfway-decent thing here and fully plan to be a Lego under Uber’s foot until they agree to a jury trial, but there’s only so much I or even the media as a whole can do. The federal government needs simply ban mandatory arbitration clauses. All they really do is help protect corporations from being held publicly accountable for their actions, and that’s the last thing our society needs these days.