Case Processing: Consumer Protection in an Attorney General's Office

Abstract

This paper examines complaint processing in an attorney general's office of consumer protection. It describes how, in the implementation and routinization of a new statute, considerations external to the law or the individual case arise, transform, and begin to characterize law enforcement. The paper describes how the staff attempts to confine the office's work by creating statistical records of work done. These records are creations because the activities of the agency—investigation and resolution of consumer complaints—do not generate unambiguous criteria of completion. The office operates within practical criteria for determining when a case is finished. As the statistical records help to routinize the task of consumer protection, they become a source of bias, direction, and legitimation for law enforcement.