Michigan has had a consumer protection law on the books since 1976. The Michigan Consumer Protection Act was written to be one of the strongest in the country — it prohibits unfair, unconscionable, and deceptive business practices, and it lets ordinary people go to court when they’re cheated, like you’d expect.

But in 1999, the Michigan Supreme Court read one narrow exception so broadly that it basically swallowed the entire law. If a business was licensed or regulated in any way (and almost every business is) courts threw consumers' cases out. It didn't matter how deceptive the conduct was or whether that conduct was even part of the regulation. Consumer advocates ranked Michigan's consumer protection the worst in the nation because of those decisions, calling our law an “empty shell” and “dead letter.”

That era is over. In Attorney General v. Eli Lilly & Co., the Michigan Supreme Court overruled those old decisions and restored the law to what the Legislature actually wrote: a business is only protected when the specific conduct you're complaining about was specifically authorized by a regulator. A license to do business is not a license to deceive or defraud.

Until now, if a business was licensed or regulated in any way, you generally couldn’t successfully sue them under the MCPA for any part of a transaction that relates to their registration or licensure. Lying car dealer? Too bad. Fraud by a financial institution? Out of luck. Not anymore.

What the Court actually held — in plain English

• The exception is narrow again. Businesses can no longer escape responsibility just because their industry is licensed or regulated.

• The question now is simple: did a regulator specifically authorize the exact thing the business did to you? If not, the Consumer Protection Act applies.

• The Act is powerful. It covers unfair, unconscionable, and deceptive practices in everyday purchases — and it allows recovery of your actual losses, with attorney's fees paid by the wrongdoer in successful cases.

(For the lawyers and journalists: the decision is Attorney General v Eli Lilly & Co, Docket No. 165961, overruling Smith v Globe Life Ins Co (1999) and Liss v Lewiston-Richards, Inc (2007).

These are the kinds of situations the restored law covers.

Every situation is different, and we'd need to review yours — but these examples show how broad the restored Act is:

• Hidden fees and surprise charges. You agreed to one price and the final bill mysteriously grew — junk fees, padded charges, "processing" or "administrative" add-ons no one explained.

• The repair that didn't fix anything. A licensed contractor, technician, or repair shop charged you for work that wasn't needed, wasn't done, or didn't solve the problem they said it would.

• Products that didn't live up to the promises. You paid a premium because of specific claims about quality, durability, safety, or performance — and the reality was something else.

• Fine print that took away what was promised. "Guarantees" and "warranties" that turned out to be riddled with exceptions when you tried to use them.

• High-pressure sales to people at their most vulnerable. A family pressured into overpriced arrangements during a loss, an illness, or an emergency.

• Professional bills that don't add up. Charges from licensed providers for services you never received, at prices you were never told about.

• Being told "we're allowed to do this — we're regulated." If a business ever waved off your complaint by pointing to its license or its industry's rules, that defense just got a lot smaller.

If any of this sounds like your last few years, we want to hear about it — even if you complained before and got nowhere.

Why timing matters

• The clock is running. Michigan law generally allows six years from the deceptive act. Every month that passes, older claims fall off the back end.

• Records disappear. Receipts, contracts, ads, texts, and emails are the backbone of these cases. The sooner we look, the more we can preserve.

• The first cases will shape the law. Courts across Michigan are about to apply this decision for the first time. Early, well-chosen cases matter — for you and for every consumer behind you.

What it costs you: nothing up front

We handle consumer protection cases on a contingency basis — you pay nothing unless we recover for you. And the Consumer Protection Act contains a fee-shifting provision, which means in successful cases the business can be made to pay the consumer’s reasonable attorney's fees. The law was built this way on purpose: so ordinary people can stand up to companies of any size.

A case review costs nothing and commits you to nothing. And we never get paid until we win for you.