Reading the contract isn't sufficient. You also need to be able to understand the legal language and its implications, and most people can't do that. If I read

Reading the contract isn't sufficient. You also need to be able to understand the legal language and its implications, and most people can't do that. If I read that arbitration clause, it wouldn't occur to me at all that it's a way for the other party to circumvent the court system. The real problem here is that companies tend to have their own legal counsel writing these documents, but customers don't have their own legal counsel reading them and advising them about potential pitfalls.