by Jeff Sovern
Recently I saw an off-Broadway play by Norman Shabel, A Class Act. Shabel is a longtime practicing lawyer and the play is about negotiations to settle a toxic waste class action case (not a consumer case). Nevertheless, the lawyers note that the case can proceed as a class action because the victims–people who have consumed water tainted by the toxic waste–have not agreed to an arbitration clause. I don't know if a non-lawyer would like the show, and I found the first half slow-going, but I definitely enjoyed the second half. And I didn't have to agree to an arbitration clause to see it.
