ATRA AGAIN URGES D.C. POLICYMAKERS TO REFORM CONSUMER PROTECTION LAW

District at Risk of Being Dubbed 'Home of the $54 Million Lawsuits'

Washington, DC, February 14, 2008 -- In light of another “absurd” $54 million consumer protection lawsuit filed in the District of Columbia, American Tort Reform Association president Sherman “Tiger” Joyce today sent a letter to D.C. policymakers urging reasonable reform of the city’s Consumer Protection and Procedures Act “before late-night comics brand D.C. ‘Home of the $54 Million Lawsuits.’” Full text of the letter follows below:

February 14, 2008

The Hon. Adrian Fenty
Mayor of the District of Columbia
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite 310
Washington, DC 20004

The Hon. Vincent Gray
Chairman, D.C. City Council
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20004

The Hon. Phil Mendelson
Chairperson, Committee on the Public Safety and Judiciary
D.C. City Council
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20004

The Hon. Mary Cheh
Chairperson, Committee on Public Service and Consumer Affairs
D.C. City Council
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20004

RE: Another $54 Million Consumer Protection Lawsuit Highlights Need for Reforms

Dear Mayor Fenty, Chairman Gray and Chairpersons Mendelson and Cheh:

As you likely know by now, another absurd $54 million consumer protection lawsuit, Campbell v. Best Buy, has been filed in D.C. Superior Court. Among other things, the plaintiff has told reporters that, in pursuit of media attention, she capriciously chose to pursue the same amount of damages that former administrative law judge Roy Pearson Jr. vindictively sought from his neighborhood dry cleaners in the infamous “pantsuit” that became internationally embarrassing for the District last year. At that time, my organization and others urged reasonable reforms to the District’s well-intentioned but loosely worded Consumer Protection and Procedures Act (CPPA) which would help protect the integrity of the law and our courts. Now that another opportunistic plaintiff is exploiting D.C.’s consumer protection law ― at considerable expense to taxpayers and consumers ― we again urge you to consider the following reforms:

• Provide that consumers can recover their actual losses as well as reasonable attorneys fees, not an arbitrary and excessive $1,500 per violation regardless of their injury, except in cases when it can be shown that a defendant’s actions were knowingly and willfully fraudulent or deceptive, and
• Permit only those consumers who experienced a loss because they actually relied on a fraudulent or deceptive advertisement or representation to bring a lawsuit, not those who vaguely claim harm to others or the general public.

Unlike other states, the District's CPPA is uniquely attractive to plaintiffs’ lawyers because it allows claims regardless of whether a consumer was injured or suffered a loss. (California had the only other such law, and the havoc it wreaked on small businesses in particular led voters to amend it by initiative in 2004.) The extraordinarily high amount of statutory damages provided for by D.C.’s consumer protection law also serves as an additional incentive for self-interested individuals to engage in lawsuit abuse, even as the public interest suffers.

If, as policymakers, you want to limit such outrageous manipulation of the city’s consumer protection law before late-night comics brand D.C. “Home of the $54 Million Lawsuits;” and if you want to make it easier for small and large District businesses to thrive, employ more residents and generate more tax revenue while providing consumers with lower, more competitive prices for goods and services, please work to enact these simple reforms.

Respectfully yours,

Sherman Joyce

CC: D.C. City Council Members Carol Schwartz, David Catania, Kwame Brown, Jim Graham, Jack Evans, Muriel Bowser, Harry Thomas Jr., Tommy wells, Yvette Alexander and Marion Barry

The more recent $54 million lawsuit was filed last November by a District resident whose laptop computer was allegedly lost or stolen when she left it for repairs at Best Buy’s Tenleytown location.

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The American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) is the only national organization dedicated exclusively to tort and liability reform through public education and the enactment of legislation. ATRA's membership includes non profits, small and large companies, as well as state and national trade, business, and professional associations.