The California Consumers Legal Remedies Act ("CLRA") is the name for

California Civil Code The Civil Code of California is a collection of statutes for the State of California. The code is made up of statutes which govern the general obligations and rights of persons within the jurisdiction of California. It was based on a civil code or ...

§§ 1750 et seq. The CLRA declare unlawful several "methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices undertaken by any person in a transaction intended to result or which results in the sale or lease of goods or services to any

consumer A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or uses purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. ...

". Forbidden practices include misrepresenting the source of the good and services, representing reconditioned goods as new, advertising goods without having the expected demand in stock, representing a repair is needed when it is not, representing rebates that have hidden conditions, and misrepresenting the authority of a salesman to close a deal. The CLRA claim is attractive to potential

plaintiff A plaintiff ( Π in legal shorthand) is the party who initiates a lawsuit (also known as an ''action'') before a court. By doing so, the plaintiff seeks a legal remedy. If this search is successful, the court will issue judgment in favor of t ...

s because Cal. Civ. Code § 1780 allows consumers who suffer damage as a result of a practice declared unlawful by § 1770 to obtain actual

damages At common law, damages are a remedy in the form of a monetary award to be paid to a claimant as compensation for loss or injury. To warrant the award, the claimant must show that a breach of duty has caused foreseeable loss. To be recognised at ...

(the total award of damages in a

class action A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...

shall be more than $1,000); an order enjoining the methods, acts, or practices; restitution of property;

punitive damages Punitive damages, or exemplary damages, are damages assessed in order to punish the defendant for outrageous conduct and/or to reform or deter the defendant and others from engaging in conduct similar to that which formed the basis of the lawsuit. ...

; court costs and attorney's fees; and any other relief that the court deems proper. A prevailing plaintiff gets to recover their attorney's fees, but a prevailing defendant usually may not recover their attorney's fees.Civil Code § 1780(e) only awards the defendant attorney's fees if the action was not in good faith.

References

Consumers Legal Remedies Act United States business law Consumer protection law Consumer protection in the United States {{statute-stub