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Attorney general's office seeks flexibility to prorate restitution from CPRA
Summary
The Minnesota Attorney General's Office asked the conference committee to adopt language allowing prorated distributions from the Consumer Protection Restitution Account so more harmed consumers can receive payment rather than strict first‑in‑first‑out full‑amount distributions.
Laura Sales, director of government relations for the Minnesota Attorney General's Office, told the conference committee the office needs authority to prorate or cap payments from the Consumer Protection Restitution Account (CPRA) so it can distribute limited funds more equitably to eligible consumers.
Sales said the CPRA statutes currently require the account to pay eligible consumers in order of the oldest final order date and to pay the full established restitution amount to each eligible consumer. That restriction, she said, limits the AGO's ability to partially pay more claimants when full payment is impractical because of debtors' insolvency or uncollectible judgments.
"Language in the senate omnibus finance bill provides a way for our office to prorate those payments to eligible consumers," Sales said, and the AGO encouraged the committee to include that language in the conference report to maximize the number of consumers who receive some restitution.
Sales cited the office's ongoing implementation, including initial distributions to people harmed by the sudden closure of Woodbury Dental Arts, and said the change would allow the AGO to equitably distribute funds to the most eligible consumers possible. No questions or objections were recorded in the transcript after the testimony.
