Consumer protection laws aren’t always headline making, but they can help right wrongs. Virginia’s new Attorney General Jay Jones sat down with Radio IQ to explain what his office hopes to get involved in.
And the AG wants to hear from you too.
“If you think about affordability this is a place where we have to lean in, putting money back in people’s pockets,” Jones said from inside the Barbara Johns building in downtown Richmond Tuesday.
The list of scams you can file complaints with his office include: internet scams, credit card, loan and debt collection, medical and health professionals, towing and more.
But that work may expand, especially as federal agencies, like the Department of Justice and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, reduce enforcement or are dismantled altogether.
“The administration is trying to undermine that very important entity and I think states do have an obligation to step into the vacuum,” Jones said.
Jones already joined a national lawsuit aiming to undo President Donald Trump’s CFPB unwinding. And Jones has also been working with Virginia elected officials to help craft bills to better protect Virginia consumers.
Among efforts is one from Herndon Democratic Delegate Irine Shin that aims to put guardrails on contracts between residential solar companies and homeowners.
“That did weigh in to say we want to see these provisions strengthened and then we’ll come back next year with maybe more opportunities for the AG to go after them,” Shin told Radio IQ.
But all this work comes with a cost, especially acute in the wake of reduced funding under the previous administration. But Richmond area Democratic Senator Lamont Bagby said they’ll be changing that too.
“We are prepared to give the AG’s office additional support to make sure they are outfitted with the attorneys and staff to support," Bagby said Tuesday.
