Conversion Therapy Victims Can Recover Treble Damages Under New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act

In Ferguson v. JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing), (NJ Super., June 6, 2014), a New Jersey trial court held that plaintiffs who paid defendant for counseling and other methods to purge unwanted same-sex attractions can recover treble damages under the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, Sec. 56:8-19 for money spent on therapy to repair the damage done by JONAH's original conversion therapy. The court concluded that those costs constitute the kind of "ascertainable loss" required by the statute before treble damages may be recovered. The Southern Poverty Law Center issued a press release announcing the decision.