This is akin to a scrivener’s error and will unlikely be enforced. The legislature, however, should pass corrective legislation, and not leave it to the courts to deal with.

New Law

My first thought was that this was much ado about nothing, in that it was likely drafted as a “may award”, and therefore judges would likely NOT impose fees against losing consumers bringing claims against those (primarily corporations) they were not predisposed politically to favor, as that has been my experience over they years generally in “may award” cases. I see now that I was happily in error. It is a “shall”, not a may, though I expect many judges will still find reasons to exercise discretion in this regard, and many large defendants will forgo an appeal or reconsideration seeking attorney fees from a plaintiff who likely can’t pay it simply to avoid both the extra litigation expense, and more importantly, the bad publicity potentially associated with such an action.