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.
Caldwell is a borough located in northwestern Essex County, New Jersey, about sixteen miles outside of New York. As of the United States 2000 Census, the borough population was 7,584. Caldwell was incorporated as a borough by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on February 10, 1892, from portions of Caldwell Township (now Fairfield Township), based on the results of a referendum held on the previous day. In 1981, the name was changed to the "Township of the Borough of Caldwell" to take advantage of federal revenue sharing policies. Effective January 26, 1995, it again became a borough. Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th President of the United States, and the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms, was born in Caldwell on March 18, 1837. His father, Rev. Richard Cleveland, was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church. The Grover Cleveland birthplace — the church's former rectory — is now a museum and is open to the public. Though today the Caldwell area is considered to be a suburb of both Newark and New York City, the area originally developed as its own individual, self-contained town and economy rather than as urban sprawl from a larger city. When it was formed, a few miles of woods separated downtown Caldwell from Newark or any of its developing suburbs. New Jersey Monthly magazine ranked Caldwell as its 32nd best place to live in its 2008 rankings of the "Best Places To Live" in New Jersey.