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Vicksburg Partners9/22/2005
ntract terms. A lack of voluntariness is demonstrated in contracts of adhesion when there is a great imbalance in the parties' relative bargaining power, the stronger party's terms are unnegotiable, and the weaker party is prevented by market factors, timing or other pressures from being able to contract with another party on more favorable terms or to refrain from contracting at all. Holyfield, 476 F.Supp. at 109-10. 726 So.2d at 1207.
. As stated, in today's case the circuit court focused on the lack of voluntariness and specifically determined that the standard form contract signed by both Stephens and Taylor was a contract of adhesion. In East Ford this Court described contracts of adhesion as contracts that are "drafted unilaterally by the dominant party and then presented on a 'take it or leave it' basis to the weaker party who has no real opportunity to bargain about its terms. Such contracts are usually prepared in printed form, and frequently at least some of their provisions are in extremely small print." East Ford, 826 So. 2d at 716 (citing Holyfield, 476 F. Supp. at 108 (quoting Restatement 2d, Conflicts, ยง 203, Comment b)).
. In East Ford, this Court found that the arbitration provision contained in an offer to purchase a used truck was procedurally unconscionable. While we found the clause to be cloaked within the body of the contract, we cited to our holding in Burdette Gin and stated:
The fact that an arbitration agreement is included in a contract of adhesion renders the agreement procedurally unconscionable only where the stronger party's terms are unnegotiable and "the weaker party is prevented by market factors, timing or other pressures from being able to contract with another party on more favorable terms or to refrain from contracting at all." Entergy Miss., Inc., 726 So.2d at 1207 (quoting Bank of Indiana, Nat'l Ass'n v. Holyfield, 476 F.Supp. at 109-10).
East Ford, 826 So.2d at 716 (emphasis added).
. Ultimately, we focused on the facts surrounding the arbitration clause and found that it was procedurally unconscionable. We specifically pointed out that the arbitration provision appeared less than one-third the size of many other terms in the document, appeared in very fine print, regular type font, and observed that all of the details concerning the vehicle were in boldfaced print, while the arbitration provision was not. Id. at 716-17.
. Importantly, in East Ford, we discussed the legal effect of a "contract of adhesion" within the context of determining the issue of procedural unconscionability and applied logic similar to that espoused by the Fifth Circuit in Hughes Training Inc. v. Cook, 254 F.3d 588 (5th Cir. 2001), one year earlier. In Hughes Training, the Fifth Circuit distinguished contracts of adhesion, arbitration clauses and procedural unconscionability:
Contracts in which one party has minimal bargaining power, also referred to as contracts of adhesion, are not automatically void. See Dillard v. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc., 961 F.2d 1148, 1154 (5TH Cir. 1992), cert. denied, 506 U.S. 1079, 113 S.Ct. 1046, 122 L.Ed.2d 355 (1993); In re Oakwood Mobile Homes, Inc., 987 S.W.2d 571, 574 (Tex. 1999). "Instead, the party seeking to avoid the contract generally must show that it is unconscionable."Id. "There is nothing per se unconscionable about arbitration agreements." EZ Pawn Corp. v. Mancias, 934 S.W.2d 87, 90 (Tex. 1996).
254 F.3d at 594 (emphasis added).
. While Mississippi state and federal precedent has fully addressed the procedural rubric which we employ when analyzing the unconscionability of arbitration provisions, we have not been p
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