(1) Any chamber of commerce or board of trade, mercantile, agricultural, or manufacturing association, any public utility, any municipality, any customer of a public utility, any person unlawfully treated by a public utility, or any public utility unlawfully treated by a customer, may complain to the commission in writing. The complaint shall set forth any act or thing done or omitted to be done by any public utility or customer in violation, or claimed violation, of any order, law, or regulation which the commission has jurisdiction to administer.
(2) Any consumer or prospective consumer of any utility service may complain to the commission with respect to the service, furnishing of service, or any discrimination with respect to any service or rates.
(3) Every complainant shall, before filing a complaint, make a good faith effort to informally resolve with the respondent the situation complained of. The complainant shall allege and describe, in his or her complaint, his or her efforts to achieve an informal resolution, including all informal resolution procedures which may be prescribed by commission rule or by approved tariffs.
(4) On the filing of the complaint, the commission shall cause a copy thereof to be served upon the respondent.
(5) The commission shall then have the authority, upon timely notice, to conduct investigations and public hearings, to mandate monetary refunds and billing credits, or to order appropriate prospective relief as authorized or required by law, rule, regulation, or order. The jurisdiction of the commission in such disputes is primary and shall be exhausted before a court of law or equity may assume jurisdiction. However, the commission shall not have the authority to order payment of damages or to adjudicate disputes in which the right asserted is a private right found in the common law of contracts, torts, or property.
(6) A utility may collect an award under this section by charging the complainant on his or her regular utility bill. Failure to pay shall be grounds for termination of service.
(7) The commission may order a utility to pay an award under this section in the form of one (1) or more billing credits. In the case of a former customer complainant, the commission may require a cash payment.
(8) It is the specific intent of the General Assembly in enacting the 1985 amendment to this section to vest in the Arkansas Public Service Commission the authority to adjudicate individual disputes between consumers and the public utilities which serve them when those disputes involve public rights which the commission is charged by law to administer.
(9) Public rights which the commission may adjudicate are those arising from the public utility statutes enacted by the General Assembly and the lawful rules, regulations, and orders entered by the commission in the execution of the statutes. The commission's jurisdiction to adjudicate public rights does not and cannot, however, extend to disputes in which the right asserted is a private right found in the common law of contracts, torts, or property.
(10) The commission's quasi-judicial jurisdiction to adjudicate public rights and claims in individual cases is in addition to the commission's traditional legislative authority to act generally and prospectively in the interest of the public. The quasi-judicial commission authority recognized in this section is a legitimate function and does not, in the judgment of the General Assembly, constitute an unlawful delegation of judicial authority under either the Arkansas Constitution or the United States Constitution.