When you buy a product or service from a business you should get what you paid for. This is the most basic expectation of our whole economy. Unfortunately some businesses have different ideas. Instead, they deliver products and services that do not meet the expectations the business placed on the products or services it has sold. These deceptive and fraudulent business practices can result in significant financial harm for a consumer especially when the deceptive business practices involve large sums of investment or basic needs like housing and transportation.
DTPA Claims in Fort Worth and Dallas, Texas
Texas law gives consumers effective remedies for losses suffered due to these deceptive and fraudulent business practices. Among those remedies the most powerful is undoubtedly the Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA) that gives consumers not just the right to pursue relief for financial losses but effective means to pursue recovery from the business including recovering attorney’s fees from the business. This allows consumers to hire an attorney to recover from the business and have professional legal representation on their side. That is a huge benefit to consumers, especially those who could not otherwise afford to hire a consumer law attorney.
Texas law provides other legal claims against a business for deceptive business practices but these remedies are not as beneficial or simple as claims brought under the DTPA. These include common law claims such as breach of contract, breach of warranty and negligent or fraudulent misrepresentation, as well as sometimes complicated statutory claims. DTPA claims give businesses less room to hide behind complicated legal defenses. By requiring a losing defendant to pay attorney’s fees the law encourages defendants to settle claims early to avoid seeing the attorney’s fees pile up. In a lawsuit all of these claims may be alleged but the DTPA claims are typically the most favorable for consumers.