Lori's Record
Getting Justice for Minnesotans.
Lori is receiving national recognition for her work. The national publication Lawyers USA named Lori one of the top ten attorneys in America in 2009 (an honor shared by Justice Sonia Sotomayor). The National Consumer Law Center awarded Lori the Robert Drinan “Champion of Justice” Award last year for her consumer protection work, writing: “Attorney General Swanson has been a tireless champion for consumers in America, whether leading the charge against predatory mortgage lending, protecting seniors from marketing abuses, or defending our basic American right to have credit card disputes resolved impartially and not through a stacked deck." In 2009 she was awarded the Pro Patria Award--the highest in the state--for her strong support of National Guard and Reserve members. The Drum Major Institute of New York called Lori’s predatory mortgage lending legislation as one of the ten best public policies in the country in 2007.
As Attorney General, Lori is the state’s chief legal officer. She represents the people of Minnesota and the state of Minnesota. She has focused on piecing together individual cases that are symptomatic of larger problems within an industry. In doing so, she has helped to level the playing field on behalf of ordinary citizens—the folks who don’t have high-priced lawyers or lobbyists looking after their interests.
For instance, Lori was the first Attorney General in the country to identify widespread financial abuse by insurance companies that duped senior citizens into tying up their lifetime savings into long-term annuities with high surrender penalties for early withdrawal. She attacked the problem by filing a lawsuit against a large insurance company for failing to ensure that its sales were suitable. The case was heavily litigated but Lori successfully secured a refund offer of several hundred million dollars for Minnesota senior citizens. She then sequentially filed lawsuits against other insurers. In the end, Lori secured almost one billion dollars in refund offers for Minnesota seniors. Lori’s work was highlighted in a feature story on ABC’s Dateline in 2008. Only Minnesota seniors have received any restitution through an attorney general’s lawsuit.
In a similar fashion, Lori was successful in securing an agreement with every hospital in Minnesota – all 126 of them -- not to charge the uninsured more than they charge to their largest insurance companies. Minnesota is believed to be the only state with such an agreement. In other states the uninsured are charged up to four times more than insurance companies. This is because insurance companies negotiate discounts from a hospital’s sticker price, but no one negotiates such discounts for the uninsured. In Minnesota, Lori did. She has also taken action against pharmaceutical companies that rip off our citizens, hospital debt collectors that harangue citizens for money they don’t owe, and caregivers who abuse patients.
Lori’s technique of identifying and addressing an industrywide problem through sequential lawsuits was critical in attacking fraud by mortgage consultants. Many people behind in their bills want to be responsible and do the right thing, and they hire “consultants” to help them navigate their debt. Only some times, those consultants take the money and don’t deliver the promised help. Over a period of two years, Lori filed over a dozen lawsuits against companies that charged advance fees to homeowners behind on their bills and then simply pocketed the money and offered little assistance to the consumer. She also sued collection agencies that lied about the amount of debt owed by the debtor. Because of these lawsuits, the bad actors shut down operations in Minnesota. Lori then drafted legislation to help keep them out.
Lori shut down the largest consumer arbitration company that hid its financial ties to the largest collection law firm.
Prior to being elected Attorney General, Lori served as Chair of the Consumer Advisory Council to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington, D.C. Lori has been a strong advocate about the need for federal regulators to crack down on financial fraud. One of the first actions taken by Lori after her election was to draft a series of laws to crack down on mortgage brokers, lenders and others who were involved in the mortgage syndication process--laws that are now the toughest in the nation and heralded as a national model. In 2007 Lori spoke at a number of national forums on her efforts in Minnesota.
Lori has been a strong and tireless advocate for families. Lori stopped adoption agencies that financially preyed upon parents desperate to adopt a child. Lori took action to stop loan officers who offered undisclosed incentives to college personnel for the referral of students to their company. She drafted legislation to curb cyber bullying of kids, to crack down on domestic abusers, and to give prosecutors stronger tools to go after sexual exploitation. Lori worked with legislators and other attorneys general to combat the problem of sex offenders who prey on children over the Internet. And she shut down living trust mills and prosecuted con men that duped elderly citizens.
Lori has been a strong advocate on health care. She took action against hospitals that charged usurious interest rates. She filed criminal charges on caregivers who preyed upon vulnerable adults and relatives who financially duped their elderly parents. She went after pharmaceutical companies that price-gouged patients on lifesaving drugs. Lori’s position on health care is well-known, as she has distributed tens of thousands of pamphlets advocating for universal health care.
Lori has taken actions that show good stewardship of our natural resources. She took action against a feedlot that made neighbors fall ill from noxious fumes. She sued the federal government to force it to adopt reasonable standards for automobile pollution and to halt the rollback of toxic pollution laws put in place during the Reagan Administration. She also stepped into litigation to force the federal government to adopt rules that would stop the importation of invasive species into Lake Superior by foreign freighters.
Lori doesn’t back down to powerful interests. She curbed abuses by utility companies that took advantage of people on fixed incomes. She aggressively opposed large price hikes in home heating costs and wasteful spending by utilities. She filed suit against cell phone companies for extending people’s contracts without their permission and then charging hefty early cancellation penalties when they tried to cancel. She even went after the Illinois Tollway System for sending bogus tickets to and then threatening to ruin the credit of Minnesotans who had never even visited the state.
Lori is fighting the battles that matter.
