CCJL has previously noted the problems with Senate Bill 68 (Sen. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora) which, as introduced, would have allowed the Colorado's attorney general to define a "consumer protection" crime and then prosecute it.  The bill also required the courts to interpret evidence that a business engaged in a single "deceptive trade practice" as prima facie evidence that it also did so in a way that impacted the public as a whole.

In last week's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, the expansion of attorney general powers was stripped from the bill, which is now largely an effort by Sen. Carroll and the plaintiffs bar to eliminate the Supreme Court's "public impact test" -- the criteria by which a single claim against a single business becomes a complaint under the Colorado Consumer Protection Act thereby making the defendant subject to treble damages and attorney fees.

As re-written last week in committee, Senate Bill 68 would eliminate the precedent established by the Court in Hall v. Walters that a plaintiff can only bring a claim under CCPA if it can be shown that the conduct in question applied not only to the plaintiff but also that it "significantly impacts the public" in general. 

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