Whether it be a TV ad…a newspaper ad…letter…or other advertising, often we see very fine print at the bottom stating restrictions or conditions. Occasionally the print is so small that one needs a magnifying glass to read the words.
What is the legal rule of thumb as to how small the letters can me made in the above situations?
And as an ammendment to the OP, does printing it six times, regardless of font size, make it any more or less legal? 
1920’s style fine print legalities?
[sub]That simultaneous sextuple posts are frowned apon… 
[/sub]
3/5 the font size used in the adverstisment*
[sub]*the above is not true[/sub]
[sub]*advertisment[/sub]
MadSam, repeat after me…
“I will only hit the Submit Reply button once.”
Back in the early 80s I worked for a hotel.
I was waiting on a guest who had filled out the resistration card. I noticed he failed to sign. I said “I will need you to sign here” and pointed.
Another person in the lobby was a lawyer from corporate and he told me that I should not do that as by telling him to sign I was bypassing the “fine print” on the reg card. Thus releasing him from obligation.
Interesting theory. I always wondered if it was true.
Dear Lord Ashtar: I shall continue to strive for perfection…
I am still awaiting an answer to the OP. It seems almost fraudulent to beckon people to buy the product in big print and then use tiny print to mention undesireable conditions and restrictions. Why is this allowed? And what is the minimum font size allowed?
There are no restrictions on fine print. You can make it any size you want and it would still have the same force. It might be possible that you could get out of a contract by showing the print was much too small for anyone to read (1 point light gray text on white paper, for instance), but the fact that it’s small does not automatically invalidate it.
Markxxx – that sounds very odd. I can’t see it affecting the enforcement of a contract as long as the signer can see that there’s printing about his name.
I think the guy from corporate was trying to say instead of telling he guest to sign the form (which would imply don’t read it just sign it) I should have told him to read it. And if he did it would have said you must sign the form.
Like I said I always wondered if it was true.
Another thing when I designed a reg card in 1998 (before then they came preprinted. I used dBase to print out the card as the guest showed up) anyway…I put the “small print” stuff BELOW the signature. Our corpoate guy had me move it up ABOVE the signature. He told me they could argue once they signed they stopped reading.
This really isn’t a legal issue but I also put a box next to the rate and the guest had to inital next to their agreed rate. Didn’t help us on chargebacks (a guest disputes a rate with his credit card company). Which I know is really a privite thing.
generally there is no minimum size. The general rule is if you sign a contract it means you agreed to its terms whether you read it or not.
a few consumer protection laws will require a mim. size, often the same size as the rest of the agreement.
don’t put stuff below the sig line - very hard there was “agreement” as to these matters.
if the writing is too small, you increase the chance of being able to get out of it. This is particularly true for contracts of adhesion, such as the language on the back of a claim ticket, film processing, etc. Having a customer initial the key points is an attempt to defeat such a defense but is not technically required.
Generally, speaking, it’s not true. Contract law generally makes you responsible for reading anything you have signed, no matter what anyone else has told you.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by RealityChuck *
**There are no restrictions on fine print. You can make it any size you want and it would still have the same force. It might be possible that you could get out of a contract by showing the print was much too small for anyone to read (1 point light gray text on white paper, for instance), but the fact that it’s small does not automatically invalidate it.
What would be the standard then in a civil suit? Is it an objective standard of reasonablness? And if so, is it then a question of fact for juries to decide? Or is it a matter of law, thus making all such boilerplate have legal significance?
This is all about civil suits, isn’t it?
Boilerplate is generally valid. The burden would be on the other party to show that holding him to the boilerplate in this case was somehow unreasonable.
A little deviation from the small print but still a tributary…we all experience the sign here, initial there and sign on the 4th page whethere we are taking our vehicle in to have work done on it or as a new pt. in a Drs. office or admission to a hospital.
Even today when I registered to see a new Dr. the receptionist gave me 8 pages to initial and sign…I took the time to read all the papers. One of them said: I have been handed a privacy booklet…well I went back to the receptionist and said I never got a copy and I must have been the first one to actually ask for it because neither of the front office girls knew about this booklet.
Most of us cannot spend the time required to read …much less understand all the papers we are asked to sign.
If it can be shown that almost everyone who brings a vehicle in for repair or maintenance is expected just to initial and sign, is the party presenting all the paper work at fault in any way?
Sometimes there are, at least in specific limited situations.
I once worked for an insurance company, on a project producing automatic notification letters of various types to be sent to customers.
One of the things the designers were concerned about was “does it meet the State of New York insurance regulations”? (Apparently New York puts a lot of specific, strict restrictions on insurance info given to customers. More so than most states, where the Insurance Regulatory Board is usually dominated by Insurance companies.)
One specific New York rule was that nothing could be smaller than 6 point type. I remember we had to redesign some letters where a footnote was made smaller than that to fit the letter on one page.
And the more customer-friendly rules of New York actually help insurance customers across the country. Like in this case, they increased the point size on the letter that was used nationwide, rather than making a special version for New York.
New York also has a law, http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?cl=16&a=36"]Civil Practice Law & Rules 4544, which provides: