Consumer lawyers tired of playing defense
05/29/2006 by Bradley Parsons Staff Writer Consumer advocates pitched a shutout during this year’s legislative session, but they wish they weren’t always playing defense. Lynn Drysdale, a consumer attorney for Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, was prepared to face a full legislative offensive. She helped beat back changes to title loan and payday loan regulations and helped preserve local lending regulations. The session was largely a success for Drysdale, but she worries about the long-term prospects for Florida’s consumer laws. Most legislation in that area aims to weaken consumer protections, she said. “It looks like the legislation we were tracking was not successful,” said Drysdale. “That’s good, but the problem is these days that the only legislation filed is harmful. It’s a disturbing trend that you don’t see much filed to protect consumers.”Drysdale thinks that’s because it’s lenders making most of the noise to the Legislature. Industry groups and individual lenders employ lobbyists every year to pitch legislation. Consumers, on the other hand, lack a unified voice. Drysdale said the only people looking out for Florida’s consumers are public interest groups and legal aid organizations. Those groups lack the resources to compete with the well-financed lending industry, she said. “I lobby when I see potentially harmful legislation is going to be passed,” said Drysdale. “But I don’t have the resources in either finance or time to match full-time lobbyists.” During the session, Drysdale was making weekly trips to Tallahassee to lobby against changes to a pair of consumer laws with Jacksonville roots. The state’s title loan legislation is based on local ordinances drafted in 2000. Jacksonville’s payday lender law, although still facing a court challenge, is also viewed as a potential model for state law. Direct attacks on the legislation failed. A bill that would have stripped the state of interest rate limits on title loans never made it out of committee. But Drysdale kept a constant vigil looking for a sneak attack. Drysdale heard repeatedly that lawmakers hostile to Jacksonville’s legislation would try to slip in a law that would have preempted local lending laws. The week after the session ended, Drysdale was still combing through successful laws to see if preemption language had been added as an amendment. Every year, Drysdale and other consumer advocates expect the same legislative challenges. They rarely are disappointed, she said. “The title loan legislation will be back, the payday lenders will be back and we’ll be trying to fight them off again,” said Drysdale. “It would be nice if we had the chance to be forward thinking and create some good laws on our own.”
| 
