2011 Annual Report - Virginia Attorney General

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2011 REPORT OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
company and its Executive Director and awarded judgments against them in the
amounts of $19,444.88 for restitution remaining owed under the original Consent
Judgment and $7,000 for reimbursement of the Commonwealth’s attorney’s fees and
costs. It also authorized award of civil penalty judgments (potentially totaling
$30,000) against the company and Executive Director if they fail to make quarterly
installment payments on the judgments.
In addition to these Virginia-specific actions, the Section entered into two multistate
consumer protection settlements that provide benefits to Virginians. Along with
the Attorneys General of the 49 other states and the District of Columbia, we entered
into an agreement with the bankruptcy Trustee for Movie Gallery and Hollywood
Video concerning potential abuses by third-party debt collectors the video rental
companies had retained after filing for bankruptcy to collect on outstanding accounts.
Among other relief, the agreement provides that the bankruptcy Trustee will (1)
rescind previously submitted credit reports; (2) not assess collection fees or interest
on principal amounts allegedly owed by former customers; and (3) pursue collection
only of the lesser of the late fee or product charge remaining on a customer's account.
The settlement benefits over 76,000 Virginians. Additionally, pursuant to an
agreement with the Attorneys General of 38 states and the District of Columbia, the
companies Circle K Stores, Inc. and Mac’s Convenience Stores, Inc. agreed to
implement voluntarily new policies to reduce the sale of tobacco to minors.
Finally, we continued to serve as counsel to the Governor’s Foreclosure
Prevention Task Force. This year, the Task Force focused on reviewing statewide
foreclosure trends and the foreclosure-related legislative proposals introduced during
the 2011 General Assembly session for possible 2012 policy recommendations. The
Section’s role here dovetailed with its continuing involvement in an ongoing multistate
investigation relating to robo-signing and other alleged mortgage servicing and
foreclosure abuses committed by the major bank mortgage servicers.
Insurance and Utilities Regulatory Section
The Division’s Insurance and Utilities Regulatory Section serves as the Division
of Consumer Counsel of the Office of the Attorney General in matters involving
public utilities and insurance companies before the State Corporation Commission
(SCC), and federal agencies such as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
(FERC) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC). In this capacity, the
Section represents the interests of Virginia’s citizens as consumers in the regulation of
services and products of insurance companies and regulated utilities including
electric, natural gas, water, and telecommunications companies. The Section also
appears before General Assembly legislative committees to address issues that
implicate consumer interests in the regulation of these industries. The first “biennial
review” rate proceedings of Virginia’s two largest electric utilities, Dominion
Virginia Power and Appalachian Power, dominated the Section’s activities before the
SCC in 2011. These were the first base rate cases governed entirely by the 2007
Electric Utility Regulation Act. At the Attorney General's request, the 2011 General
Assembly amended the Act to extend from 6 months to 8 months the statutory
deadlines under which the SCC must complete the biennial review cases, thereby
providing all parties and the Commission adequate time to investigate the utilities'
rate filings.