Q: What exactly is the consumer-protection section and what does it do?
A: I supervise a staff of about 40 people — 17 of them attorneys — and have been in charge of the section since 2000. I’ve worked in it since 1988. It includes consumer fraud, antitrust, tobacco-settlement enforcement, consumer lending, debt collectors.
Q: What do you find fulfilling about your job?
A: We get a chance to be public advocates to look for solutions to problems that are not necessarily to be litigated. We work in the legislative arena. We do a lot of education and outreach work. I speak to seniors every year on consumer-fraud issues. That stuff really gets me going. Seeing a tangible difference in the lives of individuals really makes an impact.
Q: What’s the biggest misconception about the consumer-protection section?
A: That we are here to represent the interest of every single consumer who files a complaint with our office. We have a much broader purpose than just the individual consumer.
We get thousands of complaints yearly. We couldn’t possibly begin to handle an individual complaint by every single consumer. That breeds a lot of animosity from consumers who don’t understand.
Q: So there have been cases individually you’d love to have tackled but they weren’t significant enough in numbers?
A: Yes. You balance the many complaints you receive against a business with the single complaint. It may tug at your heartstrings and may seem egregious, but our public responsibility requires that we take a look at the bigger issues and the broader impact. That’s a frustrating thing.
Q: What sort of things have changed in your 20 years?
A: The public is better educated about the kinds of things they need to look for. We’ve moved away from the buyer-beware mentality to the real expectation that businesses work fairly and ethically. Consumers are just better educated.
The downside, though, is that the crooks stay one step ahead of us, especially with technological advances. All of the really hard-core stuff is moving onto the Internet and operating long distance. It makes it very, very difficult to follow up complaints when you can’t even find the bad guys.
Q: Which area is the most difficult to combat?
A: No question, the financial exploitation of our oldest citizens. We do so much public outreach, and the feeling still remains that we haven’t reached the most vulnerable of our seniors, those who are not part of any senior organization or those who are shut in, resistant to any government assistance or intervention into their lives.
They’re still getting ripped off every day by phony telemarketers. They’re on the Internet getting ripped off every day by e-mail scams. Despite our efforts, we haven’t been able to reach who I think are some of the most vulnerable consumers. That’s probably going to be a frustration for as long as I’m here.
Q: What’s your background, and where’s home?
A: I was born in Lakewood, a third-generation Coloradan on my father’s side. My father and grandfather were born in the Cañon City area.
My great-grandfather emigrated from Poland in about 1891, settled down in Coal Creek to basically work the mines up and down the Arkansas Valley. My great-grandparents never spoke English but insisted that their kids didn’t speak anything but English. My dad’s generation were the first that went to college.
Q: How was it you decided to become a lawyer?
A: I don’t honestly know. My dad was an attorney, general practice and family law practitioner in Lakewood for 30-plus years. Right after college I decided my chosen path wasn’t going to make a lot of sense. It was mass communications broadcasting. . . . I attended the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley and got a degree in political science, then law school at the University of Denver.
Edited for length and clarity by David Migoya
