Oregon governor to decide whether to expand AG's powers

Legal Newsline ^ | 2-24-09 | Chris Rizo

[legalwatch]

SALEM, Ore. (Legal Newsline)-Oregon Attorney General John Kroger could be just days away from having the statutory authority to prosecute lenders under the Beaver State's consumer protection laws.

[BIOCHEMKY]

What does the following excerpt in the article actually mean?

This bill provides protections from lenders that consumers do not currently possess, including the ability to go after national and out-of-state lenders that are not currently regulated in Oregon,” state Rep. Paul Holvey, D-Eugene, who carried the proposal on the House floor, said in an earlier statement.

It sounds like it means that the Oregon AG will be able to prosecute a financial lending agency that is incorporated and doing business in Kentucky or Maine or Pennsylvania for that matter. Am I interpreting the above passage correctly?

[Jack Hydrazine]

When was the last time government became smaller?

[Salvation]

Oregon Ping

Please notify me via FReepmail if you would like to be added to or taken off the Oregon Ping List.

[Clinging Bitterly]

I am far from a big government authoritarian but I do believe it is a proper function of state government to prosecute financial services fraud cases regardless of where an alleged offender is incorporated.

I gave the bill a quick read and at first glance I don't see anything in it that wasn't long overdue. Here I don't see so much new law as giving teeth to existing laws.

Oregon has always had relatively weak consumer protection laws, particularly with regard to insurance and financial services. It is good in the sense that it makes it easy for a large number of companies to do business in the state, but for the last 20 years or so I have seen a steady increase in the number of scam operations perpetrated by supposed “reputable corporations” and I'm perfectly happy to see some effort to rein them in.

It is not often I'll give praise to the bunch of Democrats who are our current Oregon legislative body, but this time I'll say they did something at least half right.