Attorney general’s Consumer Assistance Program cites $1.9 million in recoveries, expands home‑improvement work

The state’s Consumer Assistance Program, a long‑running joint effort of the attorney general’s office and the University of Vermont, returned nearly $1.9 million to Vermonters in the reporting year and is expanding targeted services for home‑improvement complaints, program leaders told the Senate Economic Development, Housing & General Affairs Committee.

“It's a super exciting and dynamic program,” Christopher Kurbits, assistant attorney general and director of the Consumer Assistance Program, said during testimony February 12. Kurbits described a model that pairs a five‑member professional staff with roughly 40 student practitioners who assist with complaint intake, letter mediation and trend analysis.

Lisa Jensen, assistant director of the Consumer Assistance Program, said the office fields 30 to 40 calls a day and makes warm referrals to other state agencies and nonprofits when appropriate. The program provides a “letter remediation” process in which the office contacts businesses and gives them 10 days to respond, then relays responses to the consumer.

Kurbits and Jensen highlighted two priorities supported in recent legislative appropriations: a small‑business advocate who assists businesses acting as consumers, and a home‑improvement specialist. The testimony said the home‑improvement specialist — on the job about 18 months — has produced more than $800,000 in refunds and savings for Vermont consumers through mediation efforts.

The program’s leadership said they are emphasizing scam education and prevention as well as recoveries. Jensen described a scam‑alert signup tied to the Vermont alert system and regular public outreach, and Kurbits noted the program triages calls so staff time focuses on matters that can lead to monetary recoveries rather than every nuisance robocall.

Committee members asked about technical capabilities such as chat support and about complaint trends, including “junk fees” in hotel billing and Medicare‑related robocalls. Jensen said the office does not currently operate a real‑time chat service; the program is evaluating a new case management system that could add features. Kurbits said the program has achieved recent settlements and federal cooperation on robocall issues and partners with federal agencies when complaints fall outside state jurisdiction.

Kurbits said the program’s annual report — the office distributed the report to the committee — aims to show returns on the roughly $200,000 in state funding that supports the program, plus about $120,000 from the University of Vermont. “In the first year alone, we had a record return for Vermonters of $1,899,000,” he said. The witnesses asked the committee to consider the program’s continued support and to coordinate outreach with the Office of Workforce Strategy and Development on skills and training referrals tied to consumer protection activities.

No committee action or vote on CAP funding occurred during the hearing.