Bill Schuette failed consumers as Michigan Attorney General
No one plays a more important role protecting consumers than the state attorney general. Under Bill Schuette, however, Michigan has one of the weakest consumer protection programs in the nation. This failure is a betrayal of Michigan’s legacy, forged under consumer champion and former attorney general Frank Kelley. More important, it’s a betrayal of victims. Reform must start now.
A forthcoming, multi-author study in the Harvard Journal of Legislation documents this failure. The study examined public enforcement of state consumer protection acts ‒ the most important weapon attorneys general wield to protect consumers from unfair and deceptive dealings. Using extensive freedom-of-information-act requests submitted to every attorney general in the nation, the study gathered all actions resolved in 2014. The result is a first-ever snapshot that allows comparisons among states.
Considering volume of cases, relief obtained for consumers, and leadership in large multistate lawsuits, Michigan landed in the bottom one-third. This result is shocking given Michigan is one of the 10 most populous states. Iowa and Vermont, both small states, far out-performed Michigan. And Republican-led states like Texas and Florida had strong enforcement programs that made Michigan’s weakness even more glaring.
Was 2014 an outlier? Unlikely, at least according to the attorney general’s press releases.
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