48-610. VOLUNTARY COMPLIANCE — DISTRICT COURT APPROVAL. (1) In the administration of this chapter, the attorney general may accept an assurance of voluntary compliance with respect to any method, act or practice deemed to be violative of the provisions of this chapter from any person who has engaged or was about to engage in such method, act or practice. Any such assurance shall be in writing and be filed with and subject to the approval of the district court of the county in which the alleged violator resides or has his principal place of business or of the district court of Ada County and shall be deemed an order of the court enforceable by contempt proceedings.

(2) Such assurance of voluntary compliance shall not be considered an admission of violation for any purpose.

(3) The assurance of voluntary compliance shall provide for the discontinuance by the person entering into the same of any method, act or practice alleged to be a violation of this chapter, and it may include a stipulation for the payment by such person of reasonable expenses, investigative costs and attorney’s fees incurred by the attorney general. The recovered expenses, costs and fees shall be remitted to the consumer protection account created in section 48-606, Idaho Code, and shall be used for the furtherance of the attorney general’s duties and activities under this chapter. The assurance may also include: a stipulation for payment to consumers of actual damages or for restitution of money, property, or other things received from consumers in connection with a violation of the provisions of this chapter; and a stipulation for specific performance.

(4) A violation of such assurance of voluntary compliance shall prima facie establish that the person subject thereto knows, or in the exercise of due care should know, that he has in the past violated or is violating the provisions of this chapter.

(5) Matters thus closed may at any time be reopened by the attorney general for further proceedings in the public interest, pursuant to section 48-606, Idaho Code.

History:

[48-610, added 1971, ch. 181, sec. 11, p. 847; am. 1973, ch. 285, sec. 9, p. 601; am. 1990, ch. 273, sec. 7, p. 772.]