Fisher

Defendant DCH Temecula Imports LLC (DCH) appeals the denial of its petition to compel arbitration. The trial court found that an arbitration clause in a retail installment sales contract (RISC) for the sale of a car to plaintiff Amberlee Fisher, which included a waiver of the right to bring a class action lawsuit or request classwide arbitration, was unenforceable.

Fisher presented several theories to the trial court in opposition to the enforcement of the arbitration clause, including that the arbitration clause required her to waive an unwaivable statutory right to bring a class action lawsuit under California’s Consumers Legal Remedies Act (the CLRA; Civ. Code, § 1750 et seq.) and that the arbitration agreement was both procedurally and substantively unconscionable.

We uphold the trial court’s denial of the petition to compel arbitration.

I

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

A. Fisher’s Complaint

On July 29, 2008, Fisher filed her complaint for injunctive relief, restitution, rescission, and damages both on her own behalf and as a class action lawsuit. Fisher defined the class as those who purchased a vehicle from DCH from July 28, 2003, to the present, and (1)…