Consumer protection refers to the laws designed to aid retail consumers of goods and services that have been improperly manufactured, delivered, performed, handled, or described. Such laws provide the retail consumer with additional protections and remedies not generally provided to merchants and others who engage in business transactions, on the premise that the consumers do not enjoy a sufficient bargaining position with respect to the businessmen with whom they deal and therefore should not be strictly limited by the legal rules that govern recovery for damages among businessmen. The overarching goal is to protect individuals and the interest of the public in general from unfair and misleading activity in business and commerce (such as false advertising and deceptive trade practices) and scams perpetrated by criminals (such as identity theft and pyramid schemes) that harm a substantial number of consumers.
Ladera Ranch is an unincorporated planned community located in south Orange County, California just outside the city limits of San Juan Capistrano, Rancho Santa Margarita and Mission Viejo. The community has several features that differentiate it from most others. For example, many traffic speed-reducing measures were put into use. Roundabouts, for example, are commonplace on smaller intersections. Narrow street widths are characteristics of Ladera Ranch's small residential streets. Landscaped street medians are common, even on two-lane collector streets like O'Neill and Sienna Parkways. In Ladera Ranch, there are two different types of areas: villages and neighborhoods. Individual builders produce an area that is called a neighborhood. There are ten or more neighborhoods per village, and there are nine villages. Five of the nine villages have clubhouses themed on a particular architecture style that is emphasized within that village. There are also parks, pools, playgrounds and open areas within each village. The Covenant Hills village is a gated community which is closed to the general public, but accessible to all card-carrying residents of Ladera Ranch. There are no other gated villages in the community. In addition to the various clubhouses, the community has key-accessed private water park and skate park, 18 community parks, a dog park, six "plunges" (smaller neighborhood pools not connected to a clubhouse), many "pocket parks"/ green belts and miles of hiking trails that go all the way to Doheny Beach from its main starting point at the prestigious 'Vista Toscana' estate in East Covenant, in the Covenant Hills village.