ASSEMBLY, No. 2187

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

209th LEGISLATURE

INTRODUCED MARCH 6, 2000

Sponsored by:

Assemblyman MICHAEL PATRICK CARROLL

District 25 (Morris)

SYNOPSIS

    Limits awards of attorneys' fees, filing fees and costs of suit to certain persons in consumer fraud actions.

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

    As introduced.

An Act concerning certain fees and costs in consumer fraud actions and amending P.L.1971, c.247.

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

    1. Section 7 of P.L.1971, c.247 (C.56:8-19) is amended to read as follows:

    7. Any person who suffers any ascertainable loss of moneys or property, real or personal, as a result of the use or employment by another person of any method, act, or practice declared unlawful under [this act or the act hereby amended and supplemented] P.L.1960, c.39 (C.56:8-1 et seq.) may bring an action or assert a counterclaim therefor in any court of competent jurisdiction. In any action under this section the court shall, in addition to any other appropriate legal or equitable relief, award threefold the damages sustained by any person in interest. In all actions under this section in which a person in interest has demonstrated a loss of moneys or property as a result of a violation of P.L.1960, c.39 (C.56:8-1 et seq.), including those actions brought by the Attorney General, the court shall also award reasonable attorneys' fees, filing fees and reasonable costs of suit.

(cf: P.L.1997, c.359, s.1)

    2. This act shall take effect immediately.

STATEMENT

    The consumer fraud law, as interpreted by State courts, mandates the award of attorneys' fees, filing fees and reasonable costs of suit whenever a violation is found. This bill prevents the situation, illustrated recently by Branigan v. Level on the Level, Inc., 326 N.J. Super. 24 (App. Div. 1999), in which a court finds that "the lowest conceivable level of violation" of the consumer fraud law has been committed and the plaintiff has suffered no actual harm, but the court nevertheless must award attorneys' fees, filing fees and reasonable costs of suit. This bill provides that courts shall award these fees and costs in consumer fraud actions only to those persons who demonstrate that a violation has caused them actual loss.