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IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO Opinion Number: 2009-NMSC-021 Filing Date: April 29, 2009 Docket No. 30,536 LAURA A. CORDOVA, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. WORLD FINANCE CORPORATION OF NEW MEXICO, Defendant-Petitioner. ORIGINAL PROCEEDING ON CERTIORARI Eugenio S. Mathis, District Judge Barnett Law Firm, P.A. Mickey D. Barnett Phillip W. Cheves David A. Garcia Amy B. Bailey Albuquerque, NM Wolf and Fox, P.C. Amy B. Bailey Albuquerque, NM for Petitioner Feferman & Warren Richard N. Feferman Robert Dale Treinen Albuquerque, NM Public Justice, P.C. F. Paul Bland, Jr. Washington, D.C.

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for Respondent Doerr & Knudson, P.A. Randy J. Knudson Portales, NM AARP Foundation Deborah M. Zuckerman Washington, D.C. for Amicus Curiae AARP Gary K. King, Attorney General David K. Thomson, Assistant Attorney General Scott Fuqua, Assistant Attorney General Santa Fe, NM for Amicus Curiae Office of the Attorney General OPINION DANIELS, Justice. {1} This case requires us to review the validity of a small loan company's form arbitration provision that would limit a borrower to mandatory arbitration as a forum to settle all disputes whatsoever, while reserving for the lender the exclusive option of access to the courts for all remedies the lender is most likely to pursue against a borrower. We hold that such an inherently one-sided agreement is against New Mexico public policy and is therefore void as unconscionable. Although we differ somewhat in our legal analysis, we affirm the decision of the Court of Appeals and hold that the district court was correct in denying the loan company's motion to compel arbitration of the borrower's judicial claims. I. BACKGROUND

{2} Defendant World Finance Corporation of New Mexico (World Finance) specializes in small loans at over 100% annual interest rates. Over the course of several years, Plaintiff Laura Cordova (Cordova) signed ten separate loan agreements with World Finance that grew out of just two original loans. The loans were repeatedly rolled over into new loans, and Cordova never succeeded in paying off any of them before signing each new agreement. {3} All ten of World Finance's loan agreements included the company's separately-

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signed form arbitration attachment. The first paragraph of the printed arbitration provision broadly stated that the parties must arbitrate all disputes arising under, but not limited to:

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New Mexico Law