top of page
OUR MISSION

OUR MISSION

The California Low-Income Consumer Coalition strives to ensure that all people, regardless of their income or background, have opportunities under the law to achieve their full potential.

 

Every year, dozens of bills are introduced in the California Legislature that touch on issues affecting low-income consumers, including access to credit, arbitration, auto lending, bankruptcy, car rentals, debt collection, foreclosures, identity theft, medical bills, payday lending, student loans, towing, and utility services. Consumer bills often disproportionately affect low-income Californians, and, in particular, communities of color, who are more likely to enter the marketplace hampered by a lack of financial resources, language access issues, and a history of discrimination. As a result, many of the indigent are easy prey for the unscrupulous.

It is CLICC’s mission to right the balance. We seek to ensure that all consumers in California have their voices heard, and their needs recognized, by the Legislature. Low-income Californians ought to be able both to access the protections of California law and to grasp the opportunities of California’s economy. To that end, we work to build a state, and a future, in which consumer rights and economic justice are fully recognized and firmly established.

OUR TEAM

OUR TEAM

Screenshot 2026-01-04 at 3.23.22 PM.png

Ted Mermin

Director

CLICC is led by Ted Mermin, Director of the Berkeley Center for Consumer Law and Economic Justice, Executive Director of the Public Good Law Center, and former California Deputy Attorney General.

Screenshot 2026-01-04 at 3.23.22 PM.png

Shelmun Dashan

Deputy Director

Shelmun is Deputy Director of CLICC and Policy Director of the Berkeley Center for Consumer Law and Economic Justice. Most recently she served as the Deputy Director of the Division of Financial Institutions at the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.

Screenshot 2026-01-04 at 3.23.22 PM.png

Dani Kando-Kaiser

Policy Advocate, Kaiser Advocacy

Dani is the founder of Kaiser Advocacy. She is one of the state's leading advocates for policy that raises the standard of living for all Californians.

OUR COALITION

OUR COALITION

Logo
Bet Tzedek

Founded in 1974, the mission of Bet Tzedek (Hebrew for “House of Justice”) is to act upon a central tenet of Jewish law and tradition: “Tzedek, Tzedek, tirdof—justice, justice, you shall pursue.” The doctrine establishes an obligation to advocate the just causes of the most vulnerable members of society. Consistent with this mandate, Bet Tzedek provides free legal assistance to eligible low-income residents, particularly in Los Angeles County, regardless of their racial, religious, or ethnic background.

California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR)

Since 1983, California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR), a statewide nonprofit 501(c)(3) advocacy organization, has been dedicated to improving the choices, care and quality of life for California’s long term care consumers. Through direct advocacy, community education, legislation and litigation it has been CANHR’s goal to educate and support long term care consumers and advocates regarding the rights and remedies under the law, and to create a united voice for long term care reform and humane alternatives to institutionalization.

Logo
Centro Legal De La Raza

Founded in 1969, Centro Legal de la Raza is a comprehensive legal services agency protecting and advancing the rights of immigrant, low-income, and Latino communities through bilingual legal representation, education, and advocacy. By combining quality legal services with know-your-rights education and youth development, Centro Legal promotes access to justice for thousands of individuals and families each year throughout Northern and Central California.

Logo
Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto

Founded in 1969, Community Legal Services of East Palo Alto (CLSEPA) provides legal assistance to low-income individuals and families in East Palo Alto and the surrounding communities of San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. Practice areas include housing, immigration, and economic advancement. CLSEPA provide legal assistance and advice to over 6,000 community members per year. Volunteer attorneys, paralegals, law students, and community volunteers work with staff members to provide life-changing legal services to residents in need.

Logo
Contra Costa Senior Legal Services

For over 40 years, Contra Costa Senior Legal Services (CCSLS) has been dedicated to protecting the rights of older residents aged 60 and older in Contra Costa County. CCSLS provides free legal services that improve the quality of life for clients, assisting in such areas as preservation of housing, prevention of abuse, and planning for incapacity.

Logo
Elder Law & Advocacy

Elder Law & Advocacy is a caring group of experienced elder-law staff and trained volunteers who serve over 8,000 seniors annually in both San Diego and Imperial Counties. We provide free and low-cost civil legal services, Medicare and Medicare related counseling and advocacy, referrals to community senior service providers, and community education. The majority of services are offered at no-cost to qualifying seniors.

Logo
La Raza Centro Legal

La Raza Centro Legal, San Francisco Advocacy is a multicultural community social justice center based in the Mission District of San Francisco. Born out of the civil rights and Chicano movements of the 1960’s and 1970’s, Centro Legal was founded in 1973 by Latino law students to fill a gap in the availability of economically and culturally accessible legal services for the Bay Area’s Latino population. Since our founding, we have established a reputation of credibility in the community: as a source of trustworthy legal advice and referrals, as a place where clients will be treated with dignity and respect and where they will find advocates willing to fight for them and with them.

Logo
Legal Aid of Marin

Legal Aid of Marin's mission is to provide access to the civil justice system to low-income, vulnerable and otherwise underserved residents of Marin County. We strive for practical solutions to client problems through quality legal service. Areas of focus include: elder law; debt law; employment law; and housing law.

Logo
Legal Assistance for Seniors of Oakland

Legal Assistance for Seniors works to ensure the independence and dignity of seniors by protecting their legal rights through education, counseling, and advocacy.

Logo
Legal Assistance to the Elderly - San Francisco

Legal Assistance to the Elderly's mission is to protect and advance the right of San Francisco’s seniors and adults with disabilities to be housed, healthy, financially stable, and safe. When eviction, elder abuse, problems with benefits or creditors threaten, LAE is the lifeline.

MHAS (Mental Health Advocacy Services)

MHAS is a private, non-profit organization established in 1977 to provide free legal services to people with mental health disabilities. MHAS assists both children and adults, with an emphasis on obtaining government benefits and services, protecting rights, and fighting discrimination. MHAS also serves as a resource to the community by providing training and technical assistance to attorneys, mental health professionals, consumer and family member groups, and other advocates. In addition, MHAS participates in impact litigation in an effort to improve the lives of people with mental health disabilities.

Logo
Open Door Legal

Open Door Legal is pioneering the country’s first system of universal access to civil legal representation. Our goal is to show that when everyone has access to the law, poverty will be dramatically reduced.

Logo
Public Counsel

Public Counsel is the largest pro bono law firm in the nation. Founded in 1970 in Los Angeles, its 71 attorneys and 50 support staff—along with over 5,000 volunteer lawyers, law students, and legal professionals—assist more than 30,000 individuals, families, and community organizations every year. Our projects focus on the needs of those living at or near the poverty level in such areas as Education, Children’s Rights, Immigration, Veterans, Community Development, and Homelessness. The Consumer Law Project is one of Public Counsel’s original projects. From its inception it has assisted thousands of low-income homeowners, students, and consumers in resolving claims of unfair business practices, fraud, misrepresentations, and a wide range of issues involving fairness in the marketplace.

Logo
Public Law Center

The Public Law Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, provides free legal services to low-income residents of Orange County. Annually, over 8,000 of the most vulnerable residents of Orange County, including immigrants, minorities, veterans, seniors, and children, receive services from PLC's staff and volunteers. Our work includes counseling, individual representation, community education and strategic policy advocacy and impact litigation to challenge societal injustices, and we practice in the areas of domestic violence, human trafficking, guardianship, housing, health, bankruptcy, asylum, family law, consumer fraud, immigration, and discrimination. PLC's Consumer Law Unit works on a variety of issues, including debt collection defense, identity theft, bankruptcy, student loans, auto fraud and predatory lending.

Logo
Riverside Legal Aid

Riverside Legal Aid, a dba of the Public Services Law Corporation of the Riverside County Bar Association, provides pro se litigants with legal services, education and counselling. Services are limited to low income residents of Riverside County and are provided at offices in the cities of Riverside and Indio as well as in-court services in both cities and at the courthouse in Temecula. Areas of practice include, but are not limited to Family Law, Probate, Guardianships, Conservatorships, Unlawful Detainers, Bankruptcy and civil litigation in State and Federal courts.

Logo
Santa Clara Law

The Katharine & George Alexander Community Law Center at Santa Clara School of Law provides free legal services to low-income individuals who have been victimized as consumers and debtors by unfair business practices and fraud. The Community Law Center offers advice clinics twice-a-month regarding consumer-related issues. It also offers a monthly clinic regarding debtors’ rights. The advice provided during the clinics is free of charge. The Consumer Practice Area's major types of cases include: Fraud while purchasing a new or a used car; Car repossession or towing issues; Debt collection harassment; Notario or paralegal fraud; Telemarketing or door-to-door sales fraud; Identity fraud; Credit card fraud; Bankruptcy Credit reporting problems; and other miscellaneous consumer cases.

Logo
Watsonville Law Center

The Watsonville Law Center (WLC) provides free legal services to low-income individuals on California’s Central Coast. We believe that everyone benefits when the most vulnerable among us thrive, and that a holistic collaborative approach is most effective. We focus on legal problems with long-term impacts and solutions, such as workers’ rights, consumer rights, and access to employment.

Policy Advocates

Kaiser-Advocacy-Icon-Blu.jpg
Kaiser Advocacy

Kaiser Advocacy is a Sacramento-based firm that successfully advocates for policies that raise the standard of living for all Californians.  We deliver innovative strategies that position our clients at the forefront of the key issues facing the Golden State and beyond. Founder Dani Kando-Kaiser has managed national organizational expansions, procured over $700 million in funding for education and public interest programs, and led clients and coalitions to victory in front of the legislature. 

OUR WORK

OUR WORK

2026 Legislative Priorities

Preventing Financial Scams

The scourge of financial scams, especially those targeting older Americans, continues unabated. Losses are estimated as high as $80 billion every year. For three years, CLICC has fought for California to take the lead in putting a stop to this epidemic. As the problem has grown, so has statewide and national attention to the issue. CLICC’s resolve to do all we can to protect California’s families from losing their life savings remains unwavering.  

Past Sponsored Bills

SB 633

2022

Limón

Expanding the Co-Signers Act

SB 633 provides that, for certain types of consumer contracts, where the tradesperson or business knows or has reason to know that a co signer or guarantor is not proficient in English, the tradesperson or business must provide a translated notice in Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Korean, as translated and made available by the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency.

Signed by Governor

AB 390

2021

Berman

Making it Possible for Consumers to Cancel Online Subscription Services

AB 390 allows consumers to cancel online subscriptions for unwanted goods and services immediately and at any time. AB 390 also requires businesses to provide a link or button on their website or a readily accessible email address for termination.

Signed by Governor

AB 790

2021

Quirk-Silva

Extending a Key Consumer Protection to Cover PACE Contractors

AB 790 would amend a provision of the Consumer Legal Remedies Act so that it clearly applies to PACE fraud and be used to hold program administrators liable for their involvement in these schemes.

Signed by Governor

AB 1864

2020

Limón

Creating the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation

AB 1864 enacts the California Consumer Financial Protection Law (CCFPL) to provide the Department of Financial Protection & Innovation (DFPI) with the tools, including UDAAP (Unfair, Deceptive or Abusive Acts and Practices) authority, to monitor financial product and service purveyors of all kinds. AB 1864 makes explicit that the Department also has the authority under the Dodd-Frank Act to exercise UDAAP jurisdiction over providers not covered by the CCFPL.

Signed by Governor

AB 2524

2020

Wicks

Reining in Out-of-State Debt Settlement Companies

AB 2524 enhances regulation of unfair and deceptive actors in the debt settlement industry.

Signed by Governor

AB 1821

2019

Judiciary Committee

Restoring the Holder Rule in California

AB 1821 restores the effectiveness of the FTC Holder Rule in California by overturning the Lafferty v. Wells Fargo decision, restoring consumers’ ability to recover their attorneys’ fees and costs in addition to their damages.

Signed by the Governor

AB 1405

2021

Wicks

Reining in Debt Settlement Companies

AB 1405 establishes the Fair Debt Settlement Practices Act (Act) to prohibit debt settlement companies from engaging in specified practices or acts and to authorize a harmed consumer to bring a civil action against the provider by debt settlement companies.

Signed by Governor

AB 430

2021

Grayson

Making it Easier to Establish Identity Theft in Cases of Coerced Debt

AB 430 modifies the documentation requirements involved in various statutes that provide civil protections for victims of identity theft. The bill replaces obsolete references to a Federal Trade Commission Affidavit of Identity Theft.

Signed by Governor

AB 832

2021

Chiu

Creating Protections from Eviction and Back Rent Debt

AB 832 restricts landlords’ ability to evict tenants or to recover COVID back rent debt if tenants have applied for or would qualify for rental relief payments under federal and state efforts including the Emergency Rental Assistance Payments (ERAP) program. In addition, AB 832 "masks" actions to evict tenants for nonpayment of COVID rent debt or to collect that debt so that they will not appear on credit reports or tenant screening reports.

Signed by Governor

AB 2463

2020

Wicks

Ending Foreclosures for Credit Card Debt

AB 2463 prevents judgment creditors from foreclosing on homes for an unsecured consumer debt.

Signed by Governor

AB 3254

2020

Limón

Expanding the Contract Translation Act to Cover Co-Signers

AB 3254 provides significant protection from fraud by requiring that non-English-speaking cosigners, who are often seniors, be given a copy of the contract in the language that they speak. The bill closes a loophole in current law by protecting Californians who don't read English but are called on to guarantee contracts.

Signed by Governor

SB 187

2019

Wieckowski

Applying Debt Collection Rules to Mortgage Debt and to Attorneys

SB 187 extends the Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to explicitly include the collection of mortgage debt. SB 187 also removes the Rosenthal Act’s exception for attorneys, thus requiring lawyers who collect debt to conform to the Act's requirements.

Signed by Governor

CLICC to protect low income consumers!

At CLICC, we have one goal: to improve the lives of those in need. With your support, we can create laws that are more just and a marketplace that is more fair.
 

Every day, we see the impact of our advocacy on individuals and families. In 2020, we co-led the successful fight for a watchdog agency in California that would protect all of us. In 2025, we wrote a bill to help fix the urgent problem that up to 90% of Californians who are sued for debt don't hear about the lawsuit against them until it's over. We are very happy to say that Governor Newsom signed the bill in October.
 

Your donation will make a real difference. It will help those who need the law's protections the most but feel those protections the least. 

Together, we can make the world a little better, for all of us.  Thank you!

​​

All donations are made to Social Good Fund, a 501c3, on behalf of its fiscally sponsored project, CLICC. 

bottom of page