Progressives love screwing over the little guy: Just look at state Attorney General Tish James’ latest “pro-consumer” move, the so-called “FAIR Business Practices Act.”
She’s pushing the Legislature to pass it in the name of cracking down on junk fees, deed theft and other shady moves — but what it mainly does is offer new shakedown opportunities for shady lawyers.
Groups repping New York small businesses are outraged at how it widens the rules around who is actually allowed to sue, and for what.
It also radically expands the scope of what constitutes unlawful business conduct in the Empire State from “deceptive” practices to “unfair” and “abusive” ones — categories with no real definition.
That is: It replaces a clear, objective standard with a subjective one, and sets the stage for any low-rent legal shark to gin up a lawsuit that the right jury might buy.
Big corporations can defend themselves against frivolous suits of this kind, but smaller companies can’t — and will likely offer cash to settle.
Such lawsuits already cost the US economy hundreds of billions a year, according to analysts; why on Earth would James want to drive up that figure?
Especially since the bill’s supposed point is to protect consumers, who will end up paying the increased costs that the new legal regime will bring.
In New York, per one recent analysis, BS lawsuits already cost businesses some $88.6 billion a year — and James wants to supercharge the extortion.
In other words, it’s “protection” we wouldn’t wish on our worst enemy.
But James has never been about actually helping the everyday New Yorkers who put her in office.
She’s all about enhancing her own political brand (and throwing a bone to the Dem-backing trial bar while she’s at it).
The interests of the voters she allegedly represents be damned.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
