On Her Majesty's Secret Service: Protecting the Consumer in New York City

Abstract

6. Tse bill provided for a $50 minimum dvil penalty in order to avoid the "housing code trap," whereby judges frequently undercut housing code enforcement by fining offenders only $5. We hoped the agency would cumulate violations and seek substantial fines which the courts could not nullify. 7. We deliberately required the agency to go to court to obtain penalties or remedies, rather than authorizing it to impose administrative penalties subject to judicial review. To enable it legally to issue cease and desist orders, we would have had to create not only a new investigative staff, but a separate, neutral staff of hearing officers as well. Furthermore, although an administrative procedure would seem to expedite cases compared to the slow pace of most litigation, sta)s pending appeal of administrative orders are almost routine, so that the two-step procedure-administrative hearing and judicial review-was likely, in important cases, to take longer than litigation. Finally, ve had some doubt as to whether the City Council would pass a bill authorizing the agency itself to order remedies, particularly the important, drastic remedy of mass restitution. 8. Mayor Lindsay appointed Bess Myerson as Commissioner of Consumer Affairs shortly after we finished drafting our bill. It is generally supposed that his motives were primarily political; he was up for re-election in a matter of months, and many of the city's Jews had defected from his camp because of the school decentralization controversy. The appointment of a female Jewish television celebrity-a former Miss America-was a brilliant political move. By accident or design it was also the best merit appointment he could have made. Not only was Commissioner Myerson quick to learn the field (including the legal aspects of consumer protection) and receptive to virtually all staff proposals, but her fame and charisma enabled her to win crucial battles with heads of other City agendes, and to get almost any story about consumer fraud into the newspapers. She made passage of the Advisory Council's Consumer Protection Bill the primary goal of her first year in office. 9. NEW YORK Crry, N.Y., AnanN. CODF, ch. 64, tit. A (Supp. 1971) (printed in Appendix, pp. 1600-03 infra).

Not Just Deserts: A Republican Theory of Criminal Justice.

“…Although there are many more compelling reasons for not consistently prosecuting white-collar offenders, cost is undoubtedly the most influential reason in practice. Philip Schrag's (1971) gripping account of what happened when he took over the enforcement division of the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs underlines the inevitability of a retreat from commitment to consistent and equitable enforcement of the law when dealing with white-collar crime. When Schrag began in the job he adopted a prosecutorial stance.…”

Challenging Just Deserts: Punishing White-Collar Criminals

“…Although there are many more compelling reasons for not consistently prosecuting white-collar offenders, cost is undoubtedly the most influential reason is practice. Philip Schrag's gripping account of what happened when he took over the enforcement division of the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs 154 underlines the inevitability of a retreat from commitment to consistent and equitable enforcement of the law when dealing with white-collar crime. When Schrag began in the job he adopted a prosecutorial stance.…”