WE PASSED 2 laws based on your needs!

SB 1286- Protecting small business owners from abusive debt collection practices

CJC is proud to finally announce that the Governor signed our second bill, SB 1286 (Min) on Tuesday, Sept. 24.  

With a private right of action built into this law, this bill is a big victory that expands the state's current debt collection practices law to business debt incurred by individuals. A private right of action is an essential feature of many consumer protection laws that allows individuals to pursue civil claims against bad actors and recover their attorneys' fees and costs if they are successful. As such, it keeps the market in check, and it opens access to justice to all based on legitimacy of claim, not access to agency or money. 

This bill is also the first success of its kind in a budding trend of expanding consumer protections to small businesses in the nation. Having practiced law in female-focused small business issues before joining EBCLC, and seeing the same need play out here, I'm personally very proud of leading this accomplishment. 

A big thank you to Senator Min, Brett Hailey and our co-sponsors: Consumer Federation of California, CAMEO Network, the Small Business Majority, and our biggest supporter, the Responsible Business Lending Coalition.

AB 3283-Preserving your due process rights

On Thursday, Sept 12, Governor Newsom signed AB 3283 (AJUD) which corrects the state rules of litigation for claim of exemption hearings.

Claim of exemption hearings are needed after a lawsuit is over when a judgment is being enforced against a person, but the amount being taken is too high for that person to afford basic living costs. The hearing is used to ask the court to reduce the amounts that can be taken from the person.

The problem is that sometimes, people who are not the actual debtor, either through mistake or identity theft, are wrongfully subject to the judgment enforcement. Or many people are never actually served—they have no notice of the lawsuit until their money is being taken through the judgement enforcement.

When this happens, under the previous law, a person has only 2 choices: 1) use the claim of exemption to stop the financial drain from their paycheck or bank account, but give up their ability to fix the problem or 2) let the money continue to drain while correcting the underlying problem.

AB 3283 fixes the law to allow a person to do both—stop the money drain and fix the legal process problem. This is was a big barrier to many people who were never properly served.

Thank you to the California Assembly Judiciary Committee and Governor Newsom for recognizing the need a silent majority of people who need this fix.