Consumer Law

Michigan?s Supreme Court Creates The Toothless Wonder

By Andy Hoffman

As we?ve mentioned, despite recent improvements, the Michigan Supreme Court has long been the most anti-consumer, anti-environment, anti-victim, precedent-disregarding court in the country.  So a recent report in the Detroit Free Press about how the state?s Consumer Protection Act has been rendered all but toothless by the state Supremes came as little surprise to us.

Still, when we read that ?the court has turned one of the nation's best consumer protection laws into one of the worst? so that now, nearly three-fourths of the 13,122 consumer complaints received by the state?s attorney general last year are no longer covered by the law, even we were a little dumbstruck.

The court?s dismembering of the law began in 1999, and was completed in 2007, when it finally exempted ?most, if not all, businesses regulated by state or federal law, such as home improvement contractors, mortgage companies, and plumbers.?

Unfortunately, attempts to bolster the law have been repeatedly trampled by corporate lobbyists like the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, despite support by Governor Jennifer Granholm, a former attorney general.  Meanwhile, unsuspecting Michiganders like Lindsay Duneske continue buying houses with ?buckling roof shingles? and ?leaky windows? on promises from builders that such defects will be repaired?only to discover that if the builders renege, they have no recourse.

?We have been totally and completely cheated,? Duenske told the Free Press.  ?We are looking to move, and it will be anywhere but Michigan."

Full post as published by ThePopTort on May 05, 2009 (boomark / email).