Fee-Shifting Litigation
Consumer Protection
Protecting consumers from deceptive trade practices and financial abuse.
Overview
Consumer cases are asymmetric by design. On one side is a company with a legal department and a script. On the other is someone who has been told, repeatedly and confidently, that nothing can be done. Often something can.
Before you call: is this a consumer case?
Being a consumer who received a bad deal is not the same as holding a consumer protection claim. These statutes reach conduct amounting to a pattern or practice affecting other people. They do not reach a single bad transaction, and they do not reach a suspicion.
We ask consumers who believe they have been caught in a deceptive pattern or practice to bring evidence that it has affected others as well. That evidence is often easiest to find on review platforms such as Google, or in forums such as Reddit.
A useful test: if you cannot articulate the pattern within the first few minutes of a conversation, the claim is probably not there.
How we help
- Pattern-or-practice claims under the Colorado Consumer Protection Act
- Debt collection abuse under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
- Credit reporting errors and disputes under the Fair Credit Reporting Act
- Construction and contractor claims, including the Colorado Trust Fund Statute
- Deceptive solicitations
What it costs
Many of these cases are taken on contingency, because the statutes involved shift fees to the defendant where we prevail.
A case must be presented to the firm’s partners before it can be accepted on that basis, and one without concrete evidence of an impact on numerous consumers is unlikely to be approved. Case reviews are complimentary either way, and we will tell you honestly if we do not believe the claim is there.
Who we typically represent
People with a strong sense of public justice. People carrying credit report errors they cannot get corrected, people being pursued by collectors, and homeowners in construction disputes.
Common questions
- I got taken advantage of. Do I actually have a consumer protection case?
We do not act for consumers in disputes with companies unless the dispute is likely to affect other people as well. Examples make the line clearest.
If you were sold a car with a failing transmission, that is not a case we take. If you can show you were given a vehicle history report predating the seller’s own purchase of the car, and that other buyers were sold on the same stale report, that is a case we can bring.
If a solar company came to your house and overstated what your panels would produce, we cannot help. If a solar company installed panels across your neighborhood, cannot resolve the failures, and continues to press for payment, that is a consumer claim.
The distinction is the number of people affected by a particular pattern or practice.
We bring these cases against companies: established, substantial, and often publicly traded. We generally do not bring them against individual scammers or thieves, because we want our clients to hold a judgment they can actually collect. A judgment against someone operating a scheme from another country is a matter for the Attorney General or the FBI rather than for private civil litigation.
- There’s an error on my credit report and the bureau won’t fix it.
You have the right to dispute an error on your credit report, and the credit bureau has an obligation to conduct a reasonable reinvestigation. Some disputes are straightforward: a wrong name, a wrong address, a missing debt, a misstated amount. Others are more involved, and the more involved errors are frequently the obligation of the furnisher of the information rather than of the bureau. If you have disputed an error and have good reason to believe the bureau should have corrected or deleted it, call our office and we will review it.
Have a different question? Our attorneys have answered dozens more in Resources.
Schedule a consultation
Most consultations are free. Call (720) 998-3472, or book a time directly.