Advantages and Disadvantages—A Comparison of the Present Maine Law and the U3C

The Uniform Consumer Credit Code [U3C] is a statute which will be proposed to the Maine Legislature for enactment in the near future. Like its sister code, the Uniform Commercial Code [UCC], the U3C was drafted and is being supported by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. Their hope is that the widespread acceptance of the UCC will lead to similar acceptance of the U3C. An understanding of the U3C requires an understanding of its drafting history and the motivations of the various pressure groups responsible for its drafting. The drafting history begins with the UCC, which contains almost no consumer protection provisions and was deliberately drafted not to contain any. Its proponents feared that such provisions would make nationwide enactment more difficult and they did not wish to undertake these difficulties. However, the Uniform Commissioners were aware of this lack of consumer protection in the UCC; and, with something akin to guilt feelings, they undertook to provide consumer protection legislation to supplement it. This article will describe the changes which will be made in the present Maine law by enactment of the U3C. Since most present Maine legislation has been enacted in response to particular problems, the article will be organized around the problems of the consumer credit marketplace. It will seek to evaluate the U3C by asking: What is the problem? What does the present Maine law do to alleviate the problem? What would the U3C do? Is the latter a better approach?