Sign in Blood. Artwork available at Howard Lyon.
What exact year was the binding arbitration clause formally incorporated into the Church of Scientology International’s Religious Services, Enrollment Application, and General Release contract?
Arbitration never came up once in the 1980’s era major cases of Wollersheim, Armstrong, and Titchbourne. This was when the Church of Scientology of California (CSC) existed as the sole Scientology corporate entity and there was no CSI-RTC-CST-IAS corporate structure.
When Lisa McPherson was transported to the ER following her mental breakdown on a street in Clearwater, the medical staff wanted a psychiatric evaluation. However, Scientologists came to the hospital with a document she had signed stating she never wanted to be subjected to psychiatric evaluation. The document stated that she expected members of her religion to come to her rescue. Based on the document, the medical staff released her to her Church members. Lisa would be dead 17 days later at the hands of her Church.
When Lisa McPherson’s estate sued the Church for wrongful death following her death, CSI and Flag never asserted an arbitration clause. It appears the “I don’t ever want psychiatric treatment” contract was in place before the arbitration clause. This fact suggests to us that the arbitration clause in Scientology membership contracts was post-McPherson damage control.
In the four basic Church contracts all Scientologists must sign, there is a clause in which Scientologists agree that their heirs, agents, and assigns may never sue the Church. This too seems to be post-McPherson damage control.
There is also a clause in the membership contracts Scientologists sign which states they release CSI, RTC, CST, and all employees, agents, etc. from all liability for any and all injuries, harm, etc. that may occur in the course of their participation in Scientology. This too appears to be post-McPherson damage control.
Please comment below if you know the exact year or the period in which arbitration was added to the CSI contracts.
LRH called for getting waivers from people in a 1966 policy letter. However this was never enacted as a policy. See our article How L. Ron Hubbard devised Scientology’s most diabolical legal mechanisms.
The first formal Scientology Policy Directive on contracts we located is from 2000 . This policy calls for Orgs to get the four basic contracts signed and filed in the Department of Valuable Documents. This is the Scientology Policy Directive:
scientology-policy-directive-waivers