Consumer Protection Act

The legislature is considering putting more teeth in the consumer protection act.  SB 6382 would change the penalty provision from three times the amount of damages to a maximum of $50,000 per violation.  The reason for this that many, perhaps most of the consumer protection issues that arise involve a small amount of money but are repeated sometimes ten thousand or more times, such as billing practices, and small charges on retail items.  If the fraud involves $1 per customer then the maximum penalty would be $4 for each customer ( damages of $1 and a penalty of treble damages of $3) who sued.  (Class actions, despite what you hear, are rare because of the great cost bringing one.)  This bill would make the the maximum penalty $50,000 depending on the gravity of the offense.  A consumer fraud culprit could no longer say “so sue me” knowing that such a suit would be virtually impossible.

Immunity to the Department of Corrections

I have talked about how the legislature grants immunity to special interests, so that they cannot be reached by consumers. When is was discovered that defective materials were commonly employed in the construction of condominiums, the legislature’s response was to pass a law saying that condominium owners had no recourse against anyone in the construction industry if the damage did not appear within four years of the time the condominium got its final permit, thereby eliminating numerous claims for massive repair bills. The major beneficiary of this was the insurance industry which would have had to pay, as the insurer of the builders and suppliers, but which does not have to pay as the insurer of the condominium owners because condominium policies have an exclusion that gets them out.

State Senator Mike Carrell has introduced a bill to grant virtual immunity to the Department of Correstions because of the Department’s liability for negligently releasing felons into the community. This is rather ironic given the publicity given to legislative efforts to provide financial assistance to victims of crimes. The bill is SB6401.