Office of External Communications

Houston, TX 77204-5017 Fax: 713.743.8199

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 19, 2006

Contact: Eric Gerber
713.743.8189 (office)
713.617.7130(pager)
egerber@uh.edu

HOUSTON, Jan. 19, 2006 – The office of the Texas Attorney General has given the University of Houston Law Center (UHLC) more than $360,000 to support the school’s consumer law programs.

“This money comes from a lawsuit I filed against a San Antonio company that was selling a bogus weight loss formula, the company filed for bankruptcy and as part of the settlement, my office advocated for giving some of the money to fund consumer clinics,” Attorney General Greg Abbott explained during a press conference at the UH Law Center. “It is appropriate that we are helping Texas consumers with money we won in court from a company that defrauded Texas consumers.”

The money will be used to support the continuing activities of the UHLC’s Center for Consumer Law and the Consumer Law Clinic as well as help establish the Texas Consumer Complaint Center (TCCC).

It is the first time the Texas Attorney General’s Office has dedicated funds for this purpose.

UHLC’s Center for Consumer Law is a community outreach program directed by Richard Alderman, UH law professor and the Dwight Olds Chair in Law. Among CCL’s projects is “The People’s Law School,” which is a free program that answers the public’s legal questions. When accepting the check from Abbott, Alderman praised the attorney general’s office for providing the money and promised it would be put to good use.

The new TCCC plans to provide assistance to consumers in the metropolitan area who experience problems with defective goods or services, debt collectors and identity theft, landlord-tenant problems or bankruptcy. The center will establish an informational Web site for consumers and a telephone help line, and provide trained law student mediators to help consumers with disputes.

“Obviously, this is wonderful news for our program and our law students will benefit tremendously,” said Nancy Rapoport, dean of the UH Law Center. "But it’s also of great benefit to the public.”

Southern Methodist University also will receive an award to supplement its consumer law program under this initiative.

About the University of Houston
The University of Houston, Texas’ premier metropolitan research and teaching institution, is home to more than 40 research centers and institutes and sponsors more than 300 partnerships with corporate, civic and governmental entities. UH, the most diverse research university in the country, stands at the forefront of education, research and service with more than 35,000 students.

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