9-1-639. Attorney general; funds accounting; reporting requirements.

(a) There is created a separate account which the attorney general shall use to account for:

(i) Monies the attorney general administers as trustee pursuant to law or agreement which restricts the use of the money to a specified purpose; and

(ii) Monies which the attorney general holds and disburses as an agent or attorney in fact, which shall include but not be limited to class action litigation recoveries that are to be distributed to any person or business organization, local government pass-through monies, and contingent fee contracts to be distributed to contract attorneys.

(b) All recoveries, including consumer protection recoveries and class action recoveries, where the attorney general is not designated as the administrator, the trustee or the agent for distribution purposes, shall be deposited into the general fund after deducting litigation costs reimbursed to the attorney general. For purposes of this subsection "litigation costs" shall include expert witness fees, filing fees, reporter costs, other witness fees and costs associated with depositions and discovery.

(c) Monies deposited to the account under subsection (a) of this section may be expended in accordance with W.S. 9-2-1005(b)(ii).

(d) Monies deposited into the account under subsection (a) of this section and not otherwise expended under subsection (c) of this section may be expended by the attorney general in accordance with the purposes for which the monies were received. Monies received by the attorney general for reimbursement of litigation expenses under subsection (b) of this section are continuously appropriated to the attorney general to be expended for the costs of providing the litigation services rendered to collect the recovered monies.

(e) Not later than November 1 of each year, the attorney general shall report to the joint appropriations interim committee on the expenditure of monies received pursuant to this section, W.S. 9-1-633, 9-1-635, 9-1-702 and 9-2-1005. The report shall include an account of the monies in the accounts created in this section for the last fiscal year.