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 Considerations in Settling Attorney General Lawsuits Responding to Contacts from an Attorney General Consequences of Being Sued by a State Attorney General The Power of State Attorneys General Corporate Mergers - Anti-Trust Multi-state Lawsuits by Attorneys General Washington Legal Foundation Article - Avoiding and Settling State Attorney General Lawsuits |
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 There are several things that you can do to reduce the odds that your company will be a defendant in a lawsuit filed by a State Attorney General, or worse, a group of State Attorneys General. Always respond promptly to a letter from the State Attorney General office regarding a consumer complaint. If it will take some time to obtain all the necessary information for a substantive response, send an initial letter acknowledging receipt of the letter from the Attorney General's office, state that you are gathering the information necessary to respond and that you will make a substantive response within a specified period of time. In preparing the substantive response, get all the information about the specific complaint, including previous correspondence with the customer, actions previously taken to satisfy the customer, the customer's responses and so forth. If the consumer has had telephone conversations with company representatives, those telephone conversations should have been documented by the person taking the call and should be reviewed in preparing the response. If the Company has received similar complaints from other customers, and particularly if it has had similar complaints forwarded by a State Attorney General, you should review what the Company has told those consumers and what the Company has previously told the State Attorney General. If there are a significant number of complaints of the same type, consideration should be given to whether a company policy should be revised or better disclosure given to consumers. In cases where a particular company employee has violated company policy in dealing with a consumer, a personnel action should be considered. For example, if an employee (or outside contractor), uses profanity or threats in violation of company policy, an appropriate personnel action will help establish that the company is serious about the enforcement of its policies in dealing with consumers. If possible, it is generally desirable to have one person handle all of the consumer complaints that are forwarded from a State Attorney General's office. If that is done, it is quite effective if that person meets periodically with the head of consumer protection or other key staffer in the Attorney General's Consumer Protection office. The purpose of these meetings is to establish a clear point of contact between the Attorney General's office and someone within the Company to whom the Attorney General's office can go who can and will resolve consumer complaints on behalf of the Company in a fair and expeditious manner. Do what you say you will do. If you tell an Attorney General's office or a consumer that something will be done, then make sure that it is done. If you represent to the Attorney General's Consumer Protection staff that a certain charge will be cancelled, it is important that that be done. |
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